Sheep are called ruminants
because thay have more than one stomach. This means that they can digest grains that, for
example, a dog couldn't.
The Ancient Greeks used
sheep bones for dice.
During WWI, Woodrow
Wilson's wife grazed sheep on the White House lawn.
Some sheep, including
ewes, like to butt the person feeding them and the feed bucket.
Special care must be
taken when children are around sheep, due to the sheep's herding and fight instincts.
Sheep theft is still
legally a hangable offence in Scotland.
Sheep are usually white
or black. White sheep may appear brown -- but this is just because they are dirty! If you
don't believe me, click here!
In biblical times, wool
was left outside at night to absorb the dew and wrung out in the morning.
The sheep industry began
in central Asia over 10,000 years ago. Spinning started in 3500 B.C.E.
In 1999, a poodle
killed 20 sheep... in one weekend.... in one hour. Read
the article online. It's quite
a usual occurrence in North Devon (UK) for dogs to scare and kill sheep.
One pound of wool can
make ten miles of spun yarn.
Sheep prefer to drink
running water.
Pregnant
women should avoid
sheep at lambing time.
While it not their preferred
recreation activity, sheep can swim when confronted with flooding or other water
emergencies. Their swimming style can best be described as a doggy-paddle.
There were at least 2386
different species of sheep in Wales before it was inhabited
James Madison, a former
U.S. president, had his inaugural jacket woven from the wool of sheep raised at his home
in Virginia.
If a sheep is tipped
over and ends up on its back, it cannot get back on its feet by itself. If a sheep is
lying on its back for too long it will die (sheep were never 'designed' to lay on their
back). So if you see any sheep lying on their back, put them on their feet again!!!
Sheep droppings are left
in large, dark, faceted masses or 'crotties'. These may be 10-14 cm in size, but break
into individual pellets or small strings very easily. Lambs produce single pellets.
The largest wild sheep
is the Argali of central Asia. It stands 1.2 m high and weighs over 140 kg (300 lb).
On the 24th of March, 1978, a sheep was found under the snow that had been there for 50
days. The sheep’s warm breath had melted passages in the snow, so that it was able to
breathe. His wool protected him from freezing.
The heaviest sheep was a
ram called Stradford Whisper. In March of 1991 he weighed 247 kg and was a little over 1
metre high.
Most ewes give birth to
twins.
A one-year-old sheep is
called a hogget and a two-year-old is called a two-tooth. Sheep grow only eight teeth, two
per year. When a ewe is a two-tooth, she is ready to breed.
What do sheep eat?
Hay and other feed.
"Other feed" can mean barley and nuts, especially just prior to lambing when the
ewes need extra nourishment. Hoggets can eat swedes too.
Sheep pick up ticks or
lice from one another, and these parasites cause them to itch. The next thing you know,
sheep spend their time rubbing themselves against fences instead of eating. So they lose
weight and spoil their wool. To stop this from happening, farmers dip them into a chemical
dip for example Grenade, which kills the ticks or lice. These parasites are not the only
natural enemy that sheep have. They also get intestinal and lung worms, which means sheep
have to be drenched on a regular basis by forcing down their gullets a chemical mixture
that kills off the worms.
