Welcome to The Chronicles. I hope you will enjoy my posts about the joys of raising the oldest breed of sheep in the world -- the always intriguing, easy-to-raise Soay sheep. With few exceptions, posts contain what I hope is useful information interspersed with a bit of whimsy. Feel free to comment on anything you find here. If you want to send me a private message, that's okay, too. Send your note to the address on the "contact us" page of our main website (***saltmarshranch-dot-com). Meanwhile, enjoy The Soay Sheep Chronicles! Priscilla
By the time we discovered Soay sheep, we already lived on a farm with a huge old dairy barn. At first, it seemed a waste to raise animals too small to take full advantage of our cavernous barn. But we soon realized that little sheep can co-exist quite nicely with a very tall, very wide structure. […]
Remember when you were growing up and your mom or dad nagged at you to take your daily mineral-fortified vitamin pill? Here is good news. You never have to nag your sheep about mineral; you just have to keep their mineral feeder full and I promise they will eat enough to keep them healthy. You […]
Well I’m embarrassed. When I put together the chart of grain amounts we feed our ewes to enhance twinning, I included amounts in both ounces and cups, most likely because I am wasting a brain cell remembering an old ditty from home ec class about measuring the dense ingredients (butter, for example) in baking: “a pint’s […]
No, I am not referring to your trusty Kohler or Toto. Flushing is shepherd lingo for increasing a ewe’s nutrition in the weeks leading up to breeding in order to trick the ewe into releasing a larger number of eggs. Most of the sheep literature we have read, and a number of Soay breeders we know, […]
If your first Soay sheep are about to arrive, you may be a little apprehensive about whether you have the right “stuff” and the right setup for your new flock. There are a number of detailed “how to” accounts online and in books, but here is a rock bottom list that will get you started. Details in subsequent posts. 1. […]
Everyone here at Saltmarsh Ranch, animals and shepherds alike, heaves a sigh of relief each spring when the sheep and their guardian llamas first move out of their winter hay feeding areas and onto pasture grass. To be sure, the sheep cannot help but gorge themselves, creating havoc with their excretory functions but putting huge smiles on their faces and ours. […]