Under The Feather Farm
Producing family friendly sheep that turn heads

Annie - Valais Blacknose x Babydoll (Sunshine)

Scroll down to see our breeding rams and ewes

We are excited to have been among the first breeders in Canada of the Valais Blacknose, best known as "The Cutest Sheep in the World".

We began breeding these sheep because they truly live up to that name. When our first lambs were born in 2021, we quickly fell in love with their looks , but even more with the wonderful personalities and friendliness of our part-bred lambs. Honestly, we would breed them even if they weren’t so adorable though that has never been an issue, as every one has been exceptionally cute in their own way.

Our Valais Blacknose crosses are so people-oriented and  follow us everywhere and will even come over to greet total strangers.  The biggest challenge with them is trying to get anything done while surrounded by them eager for attention. We've found them even friendlier than the Babydoll sheep.

Our small, friendly ewe flock includes Babydoll Southdowns, Cotswold x's, East Friesian and our percentage Valais Blacknose ewes. They will produce lambs perfect for pets with follow-you-around personalities, breeding and beautiful fibre.  

Our Rams

Ben
Sire of our 2025 and 2026 Valais Blacknose x lambs

October 2025                                             Spring 2024

Ben 75% Valais Blacknose Ram
We were incredibly fortunate to acquire Ben, with his near-perfect Valais Blacknose markings and wonderful personality, he has all the traits we want in our lambs. He more than lived up to our hopes, producing absolutely adorable lambs for us in spring 2025 with the ewes below.

We’re looking forward to another spring of cute, people-loving lambs sired by Ben.
Reserve your 2026 lambs now!
His 2025 lambs were all reserved before they were even born.
Click here for our Order Page

Spots
Sire of our 2027 Valais Blacknose x lambs

Spots & Dots is Ben’s son, and we’re excited to see what he produces in 2027.
He is 63% Valais Blacknose and 37% Babydoll Southdown, moving us toward our goal of producing smaller, naturally polled (hornless) sheep with the same loving personalities and
irresistible looks of the pure Valais Blacknose.

Our Ewes

Claire wanting attention but
stuck on the other side of the fence

Oreo and Spots

Claire
50% Valais Blacknose x
Babydoll Southdown

Claire, along with her sister, Annie, and brother, Marshmallow, were our introduction to the Valais Blacknose breed, and we fell in love instantly. Claire is the daughter of triple registered Babydoll Sunshine and registered Valais Blacknose Solwaybank Extra Special.

It’s hard to get a good photo of Claire because she’s always right beside us asking for scratches and pawing at us when we stop.

She has a love for jacket zippers, happily running them up and down, she also finds the soft pull tabs on them quite delicious and has thoughtfully chewed every one off our coats.

Claire produced two beautiful ram lambs with Ben in 2025. Spots (on the right) has very small horns and is staying with us to father some of our 2027 lambs.

We’re looking forward to more cuties from the Ben and Claire pairing in spring 2026.
Bred to Ben and due mid-March.

Family celebration of Canada Day

Sunshine
Triple Registered Babydoll Southdown

Sunshine gave us our first Blacknose cross lambs bred by LAI to Solway Extra Special and delighted us with triplets.

She is an outstanding ewe with the typical laid-back Babydoll attitude and small size. She's mastered cuteness, looking at you with a tilted head like she's asking a question.

Her daughters, Claire and Callie, are also in our flock.

Bred to Ben and due March 25.

Callie as a lamb

Petunia 2023 lamb

Callie aka Short Stuff
Triple Registered Babydoll Southdown

Callie has grown from a lamb with presence into a beautiful, friendly ewe who still stands out, earning her a place in our flock.

Callie's nickname is Short Stuff because she is the smallest ewe in the flock. She is the daughter of Sunshine (above) and Vanilla and half sister of Claire.

She's had three 50% Valais Blacknose lambs. Petunia, and Tugboat and Linguini.

Bred to Ben and due March 3.

Callie and her 2025 lambs

Betsy
50% Valais Blacknose x Shropshire/Scottish Blackface

Betsy is a new addition to our flock. She is a sweet and slightly shy ewe. She is a large ewe with lovely wool.

We are excited to have been able to purchase her because she is polled (naturally hornless) and has had 75% Valais Blacknose polled lambs, which is unusual and makes her perfect for our breeding goals.

She is bred to 100% Valais Blacknose ram for 75% Valais lambs.
Due after April 9.

Mabel
50% Valais Blacknose x
Scottish Blackface

Mabel is new to our flock. We love her distinguished look with her spreading horns and outgoing personality.

She is a large ewe with lovely long wool.

She is bred to 100% Valais Blacknose ram for 75% Valais lambs. 
Due after April 9.

Polly
25% Valais Blacknose x
Scottish Blackface

Polly has the cutest speckled legs and a sweet personality. She is much smaller than Betsy and Mabel with long wool.

She is bred to 100% Valais Blacknose ram for 62% Valais lambs.
Due after April 9.

Sprite
Daughter of Registered Cotswold x Registered Gotland

Sprite has the softest wool and touching her is like patting a cloud. She is very smart and at only 4 months old is often leading the flock out to the pasture in the morning and back to the barn in the evening. Having a lead ewe with a good head on her is so important when you're moving them around often as we do here. She is also very friendly and loves attention.  Her mom is Dahlia, a registered Gotland and her dad is Edwin a registered Cotswold.

Cotswold sheep are another rare breed in Canada and are large, gentle sheep known for their lustrous long wool. It can grow up to 12" in a year. The wool reflects light making it look like it's lit from inside, it's incredible and I needed more of this in my flock! I first noticed this in my Gotland ewes when they were just sheared they looked metallic silver.

We're very excited about her 2026 lambs.

Bred to Ben and due April 25.

Little Miss
East Friesian Dairy x Finnsheep is our dairy ewe. She is 87% East Friesian and 13% Finnsheep.

She is our first dairy sheep, East Friesian will give up to 4 l of fabulous milk a day! She is very smart, friendly and easy to train with which makes sense of a breed that has been carefully selected for daily milking. She is producing 2 litres of milk a day which makes the most delicious cheese.

Bred to Ben and due March 3.

Jinnie
Registered Cotswold x Registered Babydoll

Jinnie is half sister to Sprite sharing Edwin as their dad. She has Dot, her Babydoll mom's smile and the most beautiful fleece which is so soft.

She will be bred to Ben for 2026 spring lambs.

More info about our breeding program

After some experience now, we've adjusted our breeding goals to producing a smaller, polled (naturally hornless) sheep with the Valais looks and personality instead of working towards breeding pure Valais Blacknose. The Valais Blacknose are large, horned sheep. While horns do add to the charming look of the Valais  they can also be be more challenging as horned sheep need more space at the feeder, and if they accidentally catch you with a horn it hurts. Most families and small-scale shepherds prefer smaller sheep without horns and our program reflects that.

We have intentionally chosen friendly, polled ewes as our foundation. Temperament is a top priority for us and it shows, all our lambs have been confident people lovers right from birth.

In our first year, 2021, breeding Valais Blacknose, we bred three ewes and only  Sunshine, our Babydoll ewe, became pregnant. She delivered triplets and we kept Claire. After another year of disappointing LAI results we borrowed a ram and then in 2024 we bought Ben, a 75% Valais Blacknose with almost perfect Valais markings. We love what he has produced for us in his first group of lambs in 2025 and have kept Spots & Dots, one of his sons who will be joining our breeding program in 2027.

Annie