Woolie Wonders

Animals have always been my favorite things. Some would say that my life has revolved around my pets against all reason. That’s just the way I like it. When I was a kid, I’d pick out my clothes based on what animal was on them. My grandmother, smartly started sewing animal patches on everything I owned. When we decided to move to the farm, the primary reason was to give the animals we already cared for a better life and to enable us to get more critters.

When we bought the farm, I started to daydream about what animals I would like to have. I’ve always been a fiber junkie, so I knew I had to have sheep. Now, I didn’t spin or knit at the time, but I liked the idea of having all the wool I could craft. There would be time to figure out what to do with it later. In looking around at sheep books and the internet, I found ISBONA which is the Icelandic Sheep Breeders of North America. One look at the gorgeous creatures on their website sold me on the breed. When I found out their other characteristics, I knew I had made the right choice.

Icelandic sheep are a hardy, primitive breed of sheep found naturally in - Iceland!! They are best known for their contribution to the world of knitting in the form of lopi yarn. This yarn is a barely spun single ply bulky weight yarn. In Iceland, these sheep are allowed to run wild for part of the year, so they have developed into a smart and tough breed. They are only brought in to be sheared and lamb. They live with a minimum of human intervention which allowed only the strongest to survive. They have had this sort of life since ancient times, when they were imported onto the island. A herd of Icelandic Sheep were imported into Canada in the eighties, and they have become increasingly popular in North America as a milk/meat/fleece sheep since then.

Icelandic sheep come in many different colors, like moorit (brown), grey, black, white, and spotted. They can be bred with or without horns. Both rams and ewes can have horns. Their fleeces are very long and they need to be sheared twice a year. They are smart and unafraid of other animals. They do not “herd” in the same way as other sheep. If confronted with a Border Collie, they would most likely stamp their feet at the dog instead of being intimidated. Since Iceland has no natural predators, these sheep have not learned to be afraid of our wolves in dogs clothing. They also do not bunch up the way other sheep do. Instead, they spread out across the pasture. Some sheep are explorers. Our ram, Sebastian, and one of our ewes, Shakti, enjoy escaping and looking for greener pastures. They will crawl under fences, and through holes that the farmer didn’t even know was there. They are utterly nonplussed at being alone. This independent streak can make it difficult to move and protect the herd. Guardian dogs rely on the flocking instinct of sheep to move them away from danger. The guardian dogs also prefer the sheep to stay in the same general area so they can keep track of the entire group. This is often impossible with the Icelandics. They like to stick together as family groups, but rarely do they feel the need to stay in a larger herd.

We have not needed to get any sort of driving dog (one that barks to move the sheep) for our farm. The sheep are very food motivated, and they come running as soon as they hear the food bucket clank. We can also call “Sheepie sheepie sheepie” and generally they will come flying down the hill, baa-ing all the way. My husband calls this the "Stampede of Cuteness". We feed the sheep hay, corn, minerals, sunflower seeds and processed sheep pellets. Some people only feed Icelandics hay, but we have had problems with our animals becoming too skinny when they are nursing on a hay only diet. Maybe in the future, when our pastures are better, we can achieve that goal. The sheep graze in a large pasture every day. We move them to different fenced off areas every 2 weeks to keep the pasture fresh and the worm load down.

These sheep can be very affectionate, and each of them has a very distinct personality. Ours vary from Leuci who is the shy sweet pretty girl to Ananda who is the big cuddly lump to Bambi who WANTS FOOD NOW and can’t be bothered by formalities like the other sheep or her own babies. Our ram, Sebastian, is a big peaceful guy who loves to be scratched in between his horns. He’s sweet until you show him a grain tub, and then he’ll use his sheer mass to throw everyone else out of the way.

The biggest problem the sheep have had have been predation by neighborhood dogs and barberpole worm. The dog attack was fatal to four animals, and someday, maybe I’ll write about it. The barberpole worm is a parasite that attaches to the inside of their intestinal tract and sucks their blood. They can become so anemic that they die. Any sheep that is old enough to eat grass will pick up this parasite. It is a huge scourge on anyone who has sheep, but it is especially bad in the South. We have been fighting it all summer long, and many of the ISBONA sheep farmers have had a horrible experience with it this year. Hopefully, next year, we’ll have more experience and be able to confront the problem even more head on.

Our sheep were purchased from Heartsease Farm, Ingleside Icelandics, and Green Fence Farm. These animals are fascinating and charming, and I would recommend the breed highly to anyone who would like to raise sheep.