San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[Aumlet]

Holy smokes that's a nice looking incubator!

 

[perchie.girl]

What I love about Barbados Blackbelly Sheep is they require no shearing. They are a Hair sheep. Developed in the tropics to handle the heat.

I have eighteen acres of chaparral in the high desert of Jacumba near Boulevard. It gets up to about 110 degrees on occasion in the summer up there but the norm is around 90 to 100. They are creamy or reddish brown with a black underbelly and black legs. Love love love that color. Hair sheep are a perfect choice for my climate.

Many people have a hard time distinguishing them from goats. The easiest way to tell is Goats hold their tails up sheep hold them down and the tails are a bit longer. Of course there are other differences in appearance but tails are the most obvious to people who have never seen a hair sheep before.

Another difference in hair sheep VS wooly sheep aside from their hair is how they store fat on their body. Wooly sheep store fat over the tops of their hips depending on breed it can be quite a considerable amount. Hair sheep not so much. For meat they are leaner overall.

My original plan was to use both goats and sheep as a natural way to keep the underbrush down on my property. Sheep are grazers more into grasses and grassy plants, Goats are browsers wanting woody leafy bits as high as they can reach. When you run both you have a nearly perfect brush mnagement system.... LOL.

But in my case I have had to let that Big plan fall by the wayside. It takes good fencing to manage goats and sheep and I have none and probably wont ever. Not unless I win the lottery..... the last time I checked into getting just the perimeter of the property fenced they wanted five dollars a linear foot for Tpost and Field fence which would be the bare minimum for sheep and goats.

I Should be able to fence the immediate five acres just around the house so hopefully in the next couple of years I will be able to add Barbados sheep to my menagerie.

deb

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:
Yes, three ewes and a ram, and their three babies, and the last ewe is still pregnant.

The ram is naturally polled. The true Barbados don't grow horns, just the American Blackbellies. These are true Barbados but the ram also has a little painted desert sheep in him. I'd like to find a new true Barbados polled ram.

They are not tame at all, pretty wild actually. It was a pain in the butt getting them home, lol. I was thinking of bottle feeding the next years baby does and starting to replace them with friendly ones. Maybe. =) We'll see.

Yes we will be selling lamb meat, meat co-op shares, and yes eventually babies. =)

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:

LOL!!!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:

It holds 190 chicken eggs, but mine are mixed and I haven't actually counted yet. =P

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

What I love about Barbados Blackbelly Sheep is they require no shearing. They are a Hair sheep. Developed in the tropics to handle the heat.

I have eighteen acres of chaparral in the high desert of Jacumba near Boulevard. It gets up to about 110 degrees on occasion in the summer up there but the norm is around 90 to 100. They are creamy or reddish brown with a black underbelly and black legs. Love love love that color. Hair sheep are a perfect choice for my climate.

Many people have a hard time distinguishing them from goats. The easiest way to tell is Goats hold their tails up sheep hold them down and the tails are a bit longer. Of course there are other differences in appearance but tails are the most obvious to people who have never seen a hair sheep before.

Another difference in hair sheep VS wooly sheep aside from their hair is how they store fat on their body. Wooly sheep store fat over the tops of their hips depending on breed it can be quite a considerable amount. Hair sheep not so much. For meat they are leaner overall.

My original plan was to use both goats and sheep as a natural way to keep the underbrush down on my property. Sheep are grazers more into grasses and grassy plants, Goats are browsers wanting woody leafy bits as high as they can reach. When you run both you have a nearly perfect brush mnagement system.... LOL.

But in my case I have had to let that Big plan fall by the wayside. It takes good fencing to manage goats and sheep and I have none and probably wont ever. Not unless I win the lottery..... the last time I checked into getting just the perimeter of the property fenced they wanted five dollars a linear foot for Tpost and Field fence which would be the bare minimum for sheep and goats.

I Should be able to fence the immediate five acres just around the house so hopefully in the next couple of years I will be able to add Barbados sheep to my menagerie.

deb

Yep, you've got it right on! I love them too, the color, no shearing, everything! I can't wait to taste them, the lower fat is supposed to be very delicious. =)

You might want to ask around again for the fencing, last time we looked into it it was only 3 dollars a foot for chain link!

 

[perchie.girl]

Yes, three ewes and a ram, and their three babies, and the last ewe is still pregnant.

The ram is naturally polled. The true Barbados don't grow horns, just the American Blackbellies. These are true Barbados but the ram also has a little painted desert sheep in him. I'd like to find a new true Barbados polled ram.

They are not tame at all, pretty wild actually. It was a pain in the butt getting them home, lol. I was thinking of bottle feeding the next years baby does and starting to replace them with friendly ones. Maybe. =) We'll see.

Yes we will be selling lamb meat, meat co-op shares, and yes eventually babies. =)

Painted desert sheep are pretty too.



But Black belly Rams are stunning.

deb

 

[RHRanch]

Perchie.girl, You should look into the portable electric mesh fench systems premier sells, it might work for you. http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=39

 

[perchie.girl]

Perchie.girl, You should look into the portable electric mesh fench systems premier sells, it might work for you. http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=39

I have done quite a bit of research on electric fencing. I even have a quite substantial charging unit with the idea of goat containment.... The problem is getting a good enough ground. The moisture in the soil is just too low to allow for a ground to provide shock. The best I can do is buy Bypolar electric tape which has both positive and negative wires..... No need to run electricty through the ground for it. it is designed for very dry conditions like at my house.

ByPolar tape is not that expensive I just have to get it. But its the posts that get me..... I have to hire someone to set them up even the small ones for the mesh fence. The posts alone are about six bucks a piece because I need six footers. So I am limited to every ten or twelve feet. five acres is about 2000 linear feet divided by ten is 200 t posts or 1200 just for the posts. Then the corners and gates will need to be heavier ten gauge chainlink posts with cross bracing..... If I am going that far I might as well put up field fence.... again materials.. But the fence will work for both Horses and goats and keep dogs in or out. I have a BIG horse that is dying to get out of her corral once and a while.

http://www.horseguardfence.com/index.php

If I set up electric fencing it will have to be in conjunction with horse fencing otherwise I will waste the effort. Kind of an all or nothing for me.

deb

 

[LaPetiteFarmer]

I have some silkies chicks for sale from $5 to $15. They are blue and or black (hard to tell yet)
Here are some pictures of the chicks and parents: