In the wild, sheep appear at random, standing in grassy areas. Clicking on a wild sheep will give you the option to either pick it up, or attempt to slaughter it. Wild sheep will always allow themselves to be picked up, but will usually run away if you try to slaughter them. Successfully slaughtering a wild sheep will add 6 mutton, 2 leather, and 10 oil to your inventory.
New immigrants will almost certainly find it easier to trade for a breeding pair, rather than searching for wild sheep.
Note: Soloers and casual players should think carefully before beginning to raise sheep. Sheep can eat a lot of onions, and can quickly turn into a full-time job. Sheep products are usually inexpensive, and it is often easier to trade for what one needs than to produce it. See offline chores for a way to grow onions offline.
Sheep in a pen or farm eat onions and produce dung. Sheep eat every 3 hours. A male sheep eats 3 onions at a time. A female sheep eats 1 onion at a time. At the same time, 1 dung is produced for every three sheep. When slaughtered a sheep yields 6 mutton, 2 leather, and 10 oil. All sheep products remain in the pen until removed.
Sheep can be transferred between the pen and your inventory using the "Herd" option.
Every breeding cycle, there is a possibilty that each breeding pair of sheep in a pen will produce a new sheep. Sheep do not stud -- if there are three females and one male in a pen, at most one lamb will be born in the next breeding cycle. Sheep will never breed to produce more than 10 sheep in a pen.
The optimal number of sheep per pen to maximize population growth is three males and three females.
The optimal number of sheep per pen to maximize dung production is 9 females. Every three hours they will eat 9 onions and produce 3 dung.
It is possible to separate the males from the females in a pen, to prevent further breeding.
Sheep may contract sheep pox. Pox is contracted in one of three ways:
For a very long time, sheep pox was buggy--sheep would never contract pox randomly, except when the males were separated from the females in a pen. This bug was fixed on Apr. 19, 2004.
Poxed sheep will not breed, and may die of the disease. Sheep pox is cured with a salve. This salve is made at a kitchen, and requires:
Pox may be avoided by using a modern sheep farm. (See below.)
A Sheep Pen is the simpler of the two sheep buildings, and requires the following to build:
Sheep in a sheep pen will breed until the pen contains 10 sheep. (The pen can hold more sheep, but they will not breed.)
A Modern Sheep Farm is the deluxe sheep building. It requires the following to build:
A Modern Sheep Farm works similar to a Sheep Pen, but with a few important differences:
Various laws have been passed regarding sheep: