Wells Tavern Farm is a family affair, raising sheep. We take being caring stewards to our named critters very seriously.
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26 Old Greenfield Road
Shelburne, MA
01370
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We raise primarily down breeds of sheep, and rabbits, on our small family farm in Shelburne, Mass. Our healthy, happy flocks of sheep all have names, though they usually choose to ignore us when we call them. Our sheep lineup currently: Shropshire, Oxford, Southdown... plus some Border Leicester, Merino and colored Shetland/Romney crosses.
To keep our sheep safe from coyote predation, which turns out to be a much larger threat than we had anticipated (even after having farmed in the same location since 1941), we keep two purebred Maremma livestock guardian dogs, and two horned Jersey cows, with our sheep. Both the giant white fluffy dogs, and the 1,000+ pound bovines, have proven themselves as fierce defenders of the sheep under their watch.
Last year the coyotes consumed more than 20 full grown sheep from a 3 mile radius of our farm -- only one of ours. Within two weeks we were on a road trip to West Virginia to pickup our two LGD’s, and have not lost any since then, while other farms around us have notched many sheep losses since. At the same time that we introduced dogs into our defense system, we also put bells and breakaway collars onto many, if not most, of the mature sheep. The sounds of the sheep bells are not a deterrent to the predators, rather they serve to wake the farmer’s when you hear them in the middle of the night. And we have.
You can find our sheep at some Massachusetts agricultural fairs -- come and say “hi”! Our yarns are are occasionally available online at our website, wellstavernfarm.com.
