Harlequin Sheep Society & Registry

Breeder Spotlight

January 2024

Orchid Hill Farms

Located in Kerrville, TX Orchid Hill Farms is owned and operated by Don and Mary Thorp.

Orchid Hill Farms

Located in Kerrville, TX Orchid Hill Farms is owned and operated by Don and Mary Thorp.

Managing the Workload and a Challenge

I primarily take care of all the animals and gardening, while Mary focuses on her birds and the herbs/perennials. We obviously help each other as needed especially during lambing season and often do chores together, which is a nice bonus. We also have a farm manager, Jimmy, who is primarily focused on building out our infrastructure and he has a couple of guys that work for him. Additionally, his wife Deborah, helps out with all sorts of things around the farm and for both families. They moved with us when we relocated to Kerrville.

Our biggest struggle this year has been having water available on the property. When we moved in, there were two wells on the property, both of them went dry this year. Thankfully we'd gotten on the schedule to drill a third well which was completed in November. After the new well was in, the second well, which we had been using to manually fill the storage tank for the property, dried up. Thankfully, we only had to have one load of water delivered before we could get a temporary solution working with the new well. We have pipe running on top of the ground to each of the old well heads for water distribution. We manually turn on power to the well and flip valves to move water where we need it. Given that it's above ground, we have valves that allow us to drain it during cold weather as needed. Once our new well house is built, we'll be back to automated water delivery, but that's going to at least be 2 to 3 months out.
It does help the daily step count though!

What made you interested
in raising sheep?

The farm's origin story came about while I was on a business trip to Baltimore and I asked Mary to go to TSC to get dog food. They kept her waiting by the service desk too long during chick and duckling season. When I walked into the house after my trip, the first thing I heard was the peep, peep, peep, of baby birds and I knew that farming had found me again, which I am grateful for every day. 

Given that we're not getting any younger, we focused on smaller animals when building out the farm including chickens, ducks, geese, guinea, sheep, goats, and our
Icelandic sheepdogs. Our main interest in sheep was for the wool in the beginning as both Mary and her daughter Madi enjoy working with fiber.

The farm's origin story came about while I was on a business trip to Baltimore and I asked Mary to go to TSC to get dog food. They kept her waiting by the service desk​ too long during chick and duckling season.

When I walked into the house after my trip, the first thing I heard was the peep, peep, peep, of baby birds and I knew that farming had found me again, which I am grateful for every day.

Tell Us About Your Flock

In addition to Harlequins, we also raise Miniature Cheviot to cross with our Harlequins to create Harliots. The primary driver for the Harliots is experimenting to create finer wool and also take advantage of their clean faces and legs. We may also use the Harliots as market lambs especially as we're experimenting. 

Overall, we have 51 Sheep, 46 goats, 4 Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, 2 Great Pyrenees, 3 Icelandic Sheep Dogs, 2 Barn Cats, 3 pet dogs, and no idea how many chickens,
ducks, and geese. 

On the Harlequin side, or focus is wool and breeding stock. We have 32 sheep: 

Ewes (22)
2 - 7 year old        1 - 4 year old
6 - 6 year old       1 - 2 year old
1 - 4 year old        11 - 2023 lambs

Rams (7)
1 - 4 year old
1 - 3 year old
2 - 2 year old
1 - 1 year old
2 - 2023 lambs (Available)

Wethers (3)
3 - 7 year old 

What's the most rewarding aspect of raising Harlequins?

For me it's ease of handling and their calm demeanor, at least after they're a year old or so :) Lambs are just crazy most days but they are so much fun! Seriously though,  I've always gravitated to startups my entire life. Therefore, being part of a small group of breeders who care about shaping the future of this truly American breed so that
when we close the registry, we've created amazing genetics that will delight people for generations.

What's the most rewarding aspect of raising Harlequins?

For me it's ease of handling and their calm demeanor, at least after they're a year old or so :) Lambs are just crazy most days but they are so much fun! Seriously though,  I've always gravitated to startups my entire life. Therefore, being part of a small group of breeders who care about shaping the future of this truly American breed so that
when we close the registry, we've created amazing genetics that will delight people for generations.

What’s one thing you'd want a new shepherd 
to know when they start out? 

Buy your stock from a farm that is willing to help you in your journey of becoming a shepherd, don't be afraid to use them to learn. We all start somewhere and experienced shepherds will help you learn. We have such a great community of shepherds raising Harlequins, it'd be a shame if the new shepherd didn't take advantage of our community.

What has raising sheep 
taught you?

If you can manage sheep, you can use that skill to be a better manager/leader of people.  Add goats to the mix and you can manage almost anything. 

Caring for the sheep day in and day out, knowing each ones habits, faults, teaching them how to be a good flock, really improved my empathy and observation skills and helped me be a more effective software engineering leader.

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