From Sheep to Sleep: cs

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Mother's children

The Story of a Comforter

MOTHER feels strongly that youths can be creative "doers," working toward more ecological and self-reliant lifestyles . . . whether their tasks be raising chickens on a farm or maintaining rooftop container gardens in the city. To support the endeavors of our often overlooked "underage" citizens, we're glad to publish well-written articles from younger children and teenagers concerning projects they've undertaken. However, we recommend that all young authors query (that is, send us a letter telling about the story they'd like to do) before writing a full article. Address inquiries to Mother's Children, THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS, 105 Stoney Mountain Rd., Hendersonville, NC 28791.

by Maggie Barker

Raising sheep has been the great joy of my life. Who wouldn't enjoy cuddly, cute lambs in the spring and lovable ewes all year round? It all started for me at age three when we first moved to the farmstead and Papa got me one ewe (a ewe is a female sheep). Her name was Fluff; my job was to feed her. Now I am eleven and have nine Suffolk ewes and one huge ram (male sheep) to care for.

It's simply wonderful to work and play with sheep and adorable lambs, but I started to get real satisfaction from tending a flock two years ago, when we began to make comforters from the fleeces and sell them to other folks. The comforters are fun to make, we earn $30 to $60 profit on each one, and we've really put our flock "to work"!

BASIC SHEEP CARE

I raise a breed of sheep known as Suffolk. I tried some Finns and Merinos for a while, but they weren't any better than the Suffolks, so I sold them. (The Merinos were supposed to have good wool, but it turned out to be awful for making comforters! It's best for spinning.)

Sheep can graze for their food whenever grass is growing. In winter, though, I feed my flock two times a day with horse feed (each ewe gets about one-quarter pound per day) and mixed timothy-alfalfa hay. I check their water twice a day, except when the temperature is below 15°F. Then I check it three times a day.

I trim the hooves of all my sheep at least twice a year. To keep the parasite population down in my flock, I rotate my animals to different pastures on a regular basis and worm the sheep each spring and fall. Every three years I cull the old ram and raise up a young one to become the flock's sire for the next three years. I also cull two or three older ewes every year and replace them with good ewe lambs.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print