Once you build your FarmVille Sheep Pen in your second farm in the English Countryside, you'll likely want to go to work breeding sheep within it (as that has been one of the most heavily publicized features of the entire expansion). To do this, you'll first need to build a Sheep Pen, which is available to purchase from the market for 5,000 coins. Check out our guide to not only building the Sheep Pen from scratch, but also expanding it to its full capacity of 40 Sheep.
Once that's done, you'll be shown a detailed overview of what to expect from the Sheep Breeding process, which you can see at the top of this post. First and foremost, you'll of course need to first have Sheep inside the Sheep Pen so that you can breed them. From there, the process becomes a bit complicated, with some light genetics coming into play, as you'll be able to greatly influence what your Lambs will look like once they are born.
Meet us behind the break for a more detailed look at this new feature.
As of this very early release, it looks as though the easiest way to add Ewes and Rams to your Sheep Pen is to purchase them for the store (they will also be rewarded by completing quests on your English farm). Right now, there are two Ewes (Navy and Pastel Pink) to choose from, and a single Ram (Purple Dots). As you can see, the Ram is the item with the interesting pattern, while the two Ewes are simply a single color (no matter how outlandish that might be). This is important to note as this is the main way you'll be able to tell what your Lams will look like.
No matter what color the Ram's body might be, any Lamb that you create will grow to have their mother's (the Ewe or Sheep you used) color. The sheep, once grown, will have the father's wool pattern. That being the case, let's say you took a Navy Ewe and the Purple Dots Ram from the store and bred them. You'd then end up with a Lamb that would mostly likely grow into a Navy Sheep with Purple Dots. We say most likely as there is apparently a small chance for slight variations in the resulting lambs, which can't be guaranteed or predicted.
To actually breed two sheep, you'll need to place them in your Sheep Pen, and then click on one that you'd like to breed. These can either be Ewes or simply "Sheep," which appear to all be technically female. You'll be able to click on the "Breed" button to see which Rams that Ewe or Sheep is compatible with. Click on the its mate and click "Breed" again to start the process.
From there, you'll have a new window, which shows you that the time to breed a new lamb is 24 hours. Each attempt at breeding only comes with a 50% success rate, but you can increase the chance for success by adding Love Potions to the equation. You'll be able to ask your friends to send you potions by clicking on the "Ask for Potions" button in the lower left corner of the Sheep Pen's menu. This is achieved via a general wall post, rather than individual requests. You can also purchase Love Potions in packs of 5 for 5 Farm Cash.
Each Love Potion used creates a higher chance of successful breeding, and lowers the time required to wait for the sheep to breed. Here's a rundown:
- 1 Love Potion: 60% success rate; breeding completed in 12 hours
- 2 Love Potions: 70% success rate; breeding completed in 6 hours
- 3 Love Potions: 80% success rate; breeding completed in 3 hours
- 4 Love Potions: 90% success rate; breeding completed in 1 hour
- 5 Love Potions: 100% success rate; breeding completes instantly
Your two chosen animals will then go into one of the three breeding stalls in your Sheep Pen, where they will "do their business" until the timer is up. You'll need to apply all or none of your Love Potions before setting the two animals to breed, as you can't interrupt them in the middle.
If your breeding attempt is successful, you'll be told that you've received either a boy or a girl Lamb. You'll be able to name each Lamb you successfully receive, and will need to feed the Lamb 10 Baby Bottles to grow it into an adult. Placing the Lamb on your land will allow you to click on the Lamb and choose "Ask for Bottles" from the drop down menu, allowing you to collect the Bottles you need from friends.
Here are other methods of collecting Bottles:
- Purchase Bottles for 1 Farm Cash each
- Ask friends to send you Bottles from the game's free gifts page
Once fully fed, your Lamb will grow into either a full Ram or Sheep, showing off its new color and wool pattern. It should be noted that you can either keep the Lamb or Give it Away if you'd rather not grow it at all, or know a friend that would like a particular color of Lamb but can't breed it themselves.
Right now, you'll have to keep track of your own color combinations, noting which ones you've used and what the resulting Lambs looked like, but a "Family Tree" feature is coming soon that will allow you track the Genealogy of your Sheep on your land. There are apparently prizes for those that become "Master Sheep Breeders," so keep that in mind if you're questioning whether or not this feature is worthwhile to you.
[Final Two Image Credit: Zynga]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Have you started breeding sheep in your English Countryside farm? Will you use this feature, or will you just use the building as storage for your Sheep?
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