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General Topics
- About Soay Sheep
- Designing Your Flock
- Sheep for Sale
- Breeding Programs
- Genetics
- Husbandry
- Other Resources
- Recipes
- Blue Mountain Soay Sheep
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Soay are easy keepers and easy lambers. These lightfooted, excellent foragers improve Small sheep for small acreage ► pastures while grazing. Adult ewes weigh 50 lbs, rams 75 lbs. They are thrifty, shy, curious, and kid-friendly.
Soay sheep come from the remote islands of Soay and Hirta, sixty miles off the northwest coast of Scotland, where they have survived as a stranded, isolated population for thousands of years, completely unmanaged by man. They are thought to have descended from the flocks of primitive Bronze Age shepherds. Rare in their home territory and even rarer in North America, this ancient breed is truly worthy of conservation.
We specialize in British Soay Sheep with full pedigrees traceable to Soay Sheep registered with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in Great Britain. We maintain a large collection of British conservation flock ► breeding stock which allows us to offer starter flocks with broad genetic diversity.
Intrigued? When setting out to acquire a flock of Soay Sheep, you have many options. How many? How big a starter flock? Are you interested in a purebred, full British flock, and helping to conserve the breed? Or perhaps you are more interested Designing your flock ► in breeding for type or for color, in which case, the less-expensive North American Soay may be right for you. You might even prefer a non-breeding bachelor flock.
Are you brand new to Soay sheep? Wondering where they came from, what the rams look About Soay Sheep ► like, what the ewes look like? What do they like to eat and how do they behave? Will I have to shear them or dock their tails?
The site you are viewing, www.soaysheep.com, has been the home of Blue Mountain Soay Sheep, a project of Kate Montgomery of Port Angeles, WA, for many years. In 2008, Kate retired as a breeder and dispersed her flock. As part of the transition, we have taken over the site, and are gradually integrating it with our home site, www.saltmarshranch.com. We hope you like the new look and the improved navigation options that are designed for seamless and intuitive browsing of the two sites.
Much of the content of the old site has been preserved, in much the same arrangement. The familiar-looking green Blue Mountain box above is a link that will take you to those legacy pages. Another link can be found within the navigation column to the left.