Olde English (Babydoll) Southdown Lambs
Looking for some adorable lawn-mowing pets? Interested in starting your own flock of babydoll sheep? Then you might want to join our waitlist for babydoll lambs.
How does the waitlist work?
Update 4/23/23: We have a very full waitlist for 2023, so anyone who joins the waitlist at this point will be added to the waitlist for lambs in 2024 and beyond.
We have both a waitlist and a mailing list for our lambs. The waitlist requires a commitment in the form of a deposit, and we will go through the waitlist in order of when each person joined when we have lambs available. Once we have gone through everyone on our waitlist, we will notify everyone on the mailing list if and when we have lambs or sheep available for sale.
There is a $50 deposit to add yourself to the waitlist for lambs. $50 will be subtracted from the cost of the lamb(s) you buy from us. If we have a lamb available for you and reach to you, but you are no longer interested in getting one, you will lose your deposit. But at the end of lambing season, if we were unable to get you any lambs because we haven't yet reached your spot on the waitlist yet or couldn't get you a lamb that met your specifications, you can choose to either have your $50 deposit refunded and remove yourself from the list, or have us hold on to your deposit and carry over your spot on the list for next year's lambing season.
Each year, our lambs are born in the beginning of April, and they will be available for their new home once they are weaned, 80 days after birth. Once the lambs start to be born in the beginning of April, we will work our way down the list and start collecting $200 deposits for each lamb you are willing to commit to. Once the $200 deposit is paid, we will reserve your chosen lamb(s) for you. Deposits will be refunded 100% in the event that we cannot provide the lamb for you for any reason. If you have a color preference (black/white) we will do our best to get you the color you want but cannot guarantee it. We tend to have more black lambs than white ones. Buyers who back out after paying the deposit will not have their deposit refunded.
Please note that we are located in Buckingham, PA and cannot transport lambs to you. You must come to the farm to pick up your lambs when they are ready for weaning (usually late June to early July). We also will not allow lambs to be picked up as "bottle babies" before the 80 day weaning process is complete (except in the case of an orphaned lamb).
Any questions about our waitlist and the process? Feel free to email us at hundredfruitfarm@gmail.com.
2024 Lamb Prices:
Ewe lambs: $700 each (unregistered)
Wether lambs: $400 each (unregistered)
Registered ewe lambs: $1000 each (BSSBA & BSRA)
Registered ram lambs: $650 each (BSSBA & BSRA)
About the Breed
Olde English Southdown Sheep go by a number of different names, including "Babydolls", "Babydoll Southdowns", "Miniature Southdowns", etc. They are defined by their small stature, friendly and easy-going disposition, and teddy-bear-like smiling faces. Although many people think that these sheep have been bred from a larger breed to a miniature form to make novelty pets, the opposite is true. These miniature sheep are actually the original Southdown breed from the South Downs region of England. They were imported into the US in the early 19th century and were enormously popular on small family farms in the UK and America throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. As family farms began to decline in the early 20th cenury, and electricity made large freezers possible, smaller breeds began to fall out of favor and the "bigger is better" philosophy resulted in people breeding progressively larger sheep until the American line of Southdowns became a large breed of meat sheep distinct from the original English breed, which had almost become extinct in the US. The use of livestock in orchards also declined as agriculture moved towards industrialization and away from integrated farms. So less and less farmers would keep these sheep in their orchards, as so many farmers switched to herbicides instead. The breed was rescued from oblivion in the 1980s, and since then has grown to be an increasingly popular breed among smallholders and hobbyists as well as orchardists and vineyard owners.
Although relatively few people eat babydoll sheep anymore, the breed was orginially developed as a dual purpose breed for both meat and wool, and the breed can still be used for this purpose today.
Our Flock
Some of the hardest workers on our farm are our flock of babydoll sheep who tirelessly work to keep down the grass in between our fruit and nut trees, and gobble down any fallen fruit they come across in the process. Fortunately for us, they are very willing workers who are more than glad to do this service for us. In return for their assistance, we make sure to always provide them with fresh grass, water, shelter, and minerals and keep them as happy and healthy as can be, and keep their hooves and wool trimmed as needed. As of February 2021, we currently have 19 sheep in our flock - 16 ewes, two ewe lambs, one wether, and one ram. Our ram and about half our ewes are registered with Babydoll Southdown Sheep Breeders Association (BSSBA). Because we have both unregistered and registered ewes, we have both registered and unregistered lambs for sale.
Orchard Sheep
Why are these sheep so great for orchards and vineyards? The answer lies in their short stature and grazing habits. Since Babydoll Southdowns only stand 18-24" at the shoulder, they can only reach a few feet up to eat the leaves from fruit trees and grape vines. This means that they can do a great job of eating the grass, weeds, and root suckers that grow at the base of fruit trees and grape vines, without damaging the fruiting branches themselves. They will also not damage the mature bark of trees or vines when managed properly, unlike most other breeds of sheep. (It's important to note that they do love to eat the bark of young fruit trees and vines though, so young trees will need to be protected with hardware cloth or cages until they are old enough to form harder, mature bark.) In addition to keeping the grass down, they also fertilize the orchard with their droppings, and eat fallen fruit that can fester insect pests and other pathogens that would harm the quality of the fruit (but will not in any way harm the sheep). So while conventional orchards will use herbicides to kill grass around fruit trees, insecticides to kill insect pests, and fungicides to kill fungal pathogens, holistic and organic orchardists can use sheep to take the place of all these chemicals.
