Tell me about Hebrideans?

[Dry Rot]

I am changing livestock and wondering about Hebrideans. I see quite a few 'out of the car window' up here and have just been reading how biddable they are on the breed society website. Having had ShetlandxCheviots, I am extremely skeptical! I wouldn't want a pegree flock anyway and it would probably be a few for home consumption. I have mostly mains electric fencing here, would that work? The SXC just took a run at fences and voltage didn't seem to matter! Somehow the word 'biddable' doesn't seem quite right for something that small and wild looking! Do they mean the pet sheep brain washed to fed out of a bucket and not the proper ones?

 

[Longlowdog]

A close neighbour has a wee non-breeding flock of ten. They are the wariest beasties I've encountered. Even though she feeds and visits them every day they have to be tricked into being contained. They wriggle like worms when sheared (personal experience) and have wool from their nose to their toes. They do not flock together when pressed by a dog, it is every sheep for itself and they resemble a firework exploding. They are the only sheep to have actually bitten me when being shorn and not just one and not just once. They are however contained by rylock and two strands of plain wire but they do totally ignore the electric fence used to divide up the horse paddock they were bought to keep tidy. My neighbour loves them to bits. I can't stand them.
N.B other folks experience with them may vary....I hope!

 

[dave mountain]

If you want something to eat then leave the Hebrideans. Be better off with chickens. Or even welshies.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Step one, buy a gun.
step two, shoot the Hebrideans
Step three, go buy some welshies.
Honestly… they are not biddable at all…

 

[Longlowdog]

My Soays were very tasty but didn't hit 21kgs on the hook till they had a 4 teeth up. Heb's are maybe 10% bigger but no fleshier nor do they have a great carcass.
They did lamb with no intervention rain, hail, sleet or snow. They also lambed April till November when we believed the previous owners assertion they were very seasonal breeders as they were so primitive that the tups could be left in year round. Oh how they must have laughed throughout the summer after they sold us the place.

 

[dave mountain]

In all seriousness I don't think you will keep any breed of hill sheep contained with electric fencing

 

[Estate fencing.]

In all seriousness I don't think you will keep any breed of hill sheep contained with electric fencing

I keep all my welsh ewes in behind 2 stands of electric, just never let the battery go flat. They summer in a valley that has an arable all the way around it and no wall or hedge.

 

[dave mountain]

I keep all my welsh ewes in behind 2 stands of electronic, just never let the battery go flat. They summer in a valley that has a arable all the way around it and no wall or hedge.

Yours are better behaved than mine were then

 

[Anymulewilldo]

In all seriousness I don't think you will keep any breed of hill sheep contained with electric fencing

Keep plenty of Cheviot and blackie ewes behind electric all winter Used too keep Swales, welshies & Beulahs behind it too years ago. I think you meant “primitive breeds”

 

[dave mountain]

Keep plenty of Cheviot and blackie ewes behind electric all winter Used too keep Swales, welshies & Beulahs behind it too years ago. I think you meant “primitive breeds”

I think I'm just not very good at electric fencing

 

[Estate fencing.]

I think I'm just not very good at electric fencing

I honestly think welsh ewes are better an most once they are trained to it, its almost impossible to get them to cross the line even when I have taken the fence up.

 

[unlacedgecko]

In all seriousness I don't think you will keep any breed of hill sheep contained with electric fencing

I keep 1000+ Shetland and Shetland crosses behind electric year round.

 

[JSmith]

I’m gonna have to stand up for the Hebridean, sorry!! Somehow we’ve got 50-60, squired years ago an topped up now an then when I feel like it/ see them! I put them some where they can range a bit an leave them to it, catch’s for shearing an tailing the lambs then selling the lambs, put to a llyne ram the lambs don’t have horns and mostly come white, had 90£ for the lambs end of august straight off the ewe! They’re very long lived too, if I had a big enough patch of ground to forget about them I’d have a thousand of them, very low cost an maintenance in my experience!!

 

[Tim W]

I saw a flock of 600 Hebs in Norfolk this year
Good little sheep that needed very little maintainance ---cracking little Exlana cross lambs at foot

 

[Tim W]

There is also a flock of high health status performance recorded Hebs near here

 

[unlacedgecko]

I saw a flock of 600 Hebs in Norfolk this year
Good little sheep that needed very little maintainance ---cracking little Exlana cross lambs at foot

Richard's?

 

[Dry Rot]

Well, that's a revelation! I never did believe in clubs and societies anyway! Nor sheep, come to that. Four ewes lined up to be lambed at 3am, me with a bad back, sub zero temperatures, horizontal sleet, convinced me about out door lambing. So I think I'll give primitive sheep (collectively) a miss, even if they are easy lambing. I think I'll have to think this out again.

At the present, I am breeding an old fashioned traditional breed of chicken for the pot and that is working well. Used to be free range and roosting in the trees but neighbour's dog and foxes drove them inside. I've loved breeding and training Highland ponies which are highly profitable at the moment, but the required (human) females are grossly unreliable, if mostly charming. Handling animals each weighing over half a tonne in my eighties is getting a bit much.

Maybe just let the grass, put my feet up and grow fat....? I can still do my share of fencing. Harrowing horse muck today if it stays mild.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Well, that's a revelation! I never did believe in clubs and societies anyway! Nor sheep, come to that. Four ewes lined up to be lambed at 3am, me with a bad back, sub zero temperatures, horizontal sleet, convinced me about out door lambing. So I think I'll give primitive sheep (collectively) a miss, even if they are easy lambing. I think I'll have to think this out again.

At the present, I am breeding an old fashioned traditional breed of chicken for the pot and that is working well. Used to be free range and roosting in the trees but neighbour's dog and foxes drove them inside. I've loved breeding and training Highland ponies which are highly profitable at the moment, but the required (human) females are grossly unreliable, if mostly charming. Handling animals each weighing over half a tonne in my eighties is getting a bit much.

Maybe just let the grass, put my feet up and grow fat....? I can still do my share of fencing. Harrowing horse muck today if it stays mild.

You're in your 80s?!

 

[dave mountain]

You'd be very unlucky to get lambing problems with primitives or welshies if kept pure. Problems will come from overfeeding or from crossing 190kg rams onto 25kg sheep

 

[Dry Rot]

You're in your 80s?!

How else does one become so wise?