We currently have a flock of ten Southdown Babydoll Sheep. Since they are quite small for sheep, some assume Babydolls are miniature sheep. Actually, Babydolls have been around for 100s of years. They were imported from England into the U.S. in the 1800s and early 1900s. By the 1960s, producers were looking for a larger sheep for meat and began breeding them larger to become the American Southdown Sheep, and the smaller Babydolls almost went extinct.

Fortunately for us…. Babydolls are just too cute and have begun making a comeback!!

Our ram, Jon Bruce, is the only intact boy on the premises, so all these babies belong to him.

Babydolls breed in the fall, the waning daylight hours causing them to go into heat. They carry lambs for five months, and they birth in the early spring. Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to be… We brought Jon Bruce home February 25, 2024 and oops, one of our girls decided she wasn’t done being in heat, so she got bred and we had a surprise lamb August 3, 2024.

I saw one of our ewes, Delilah, get bred on September 4th, so I knew to expect her to lamb around January 27th. On January 25th, she started pacing and pawing the ground in the barn. An hour later, we had a single ewe that we named Fiona. She is so cute!

I also had Bluebelle and Buttercup in the pasture with Jon Bruce, but I never saw them get bred. I’m sure they ARE bred as they never snuggled up to Jon Bruce through the winter. They would certainly snuggle up if they were in heat. So, we watch and wait…

Bluebelle distanced herself from the flock on January 30th, so I was sure she’d lamb any minute. I waited and waited, and finally February 7th, she lambed another single ewe that we named Felicity! Since Bluebelle is a new momma, she seemed a little bewildered by the whole ordeal and it took about an hour for her to allow the baby to nurse. She has warmed up to the idea after a few hours, and baby Felicity is doing well.

No one is more excited about Felicity than Fiona. She’s pretty happy to have a friend to jump around and play with since Emma just runs from her. But running is fun, right? Not to Emma. This photo with two-week-old Fiona looking at newborn Felicity is so cute!

Now we wait for Buttercup to lamb. Maybe she’ll give us some twins. Maybe she’ll give us a ram lamb. We’ll see…

For sheep people: all of our flock (except our wethers) is registered with Olde English Babydolls. Jon Bruce, Delilah, and new baby Fiona are also registered with NABBSAR.