There's some sheep over the fence
Sheep are passive animal mobs that first appeared in the Survival Test mode. The main purpose of sheep is to supply Wool. Sheep are 1.25 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide and 1.4375 blocks long.
Behavior[]
Like all mobs, sheep will wander around the overworld aimlessly. They will run when attacked (they used to only stare at you if you attacked them in the XBLA Version). When they come to an obstacle they will often try to surmount it by jumping, which makes for some odd, and somewhat humorous, behavior when at obstacles they cannot overcome. They will make no attempt to stay out of water, and a common sight is several sheep bobbing in the water along with some other animals. Sheep often spawn in groups of 2-8. Sheep can naturally spawn in the colors White, Brown, Black, Grey, Light Grey, and very rarely, Pink. Different colored sheep act exactly the same as the normally colored sheep, except when struck by lightning.
Naturally, sheep will roam around and eat grass. When a sheep eats grass, you will hear a crunching sound similar to that of placing down or walking on a dirt block. The dirt block they have eaten from will no longer have grass on the top and will instead be bare dirt until grass regrows. In the case of tall grass, the block will just vanish.
Farming and Producing[]
Sheep can easily be farmed by placing them in a Fence, as they cannot jump over it. Sheep will follow the player when wheat is held. Sheep can be found difficult to move into a fenced area without wheat because they will tend to run to the nearest opening in the fence or exit from a hole.
They can also be born by giving two sheep wheat. If you dye two sheep the same color before the baby is born, they will produce a Lamb of the same color. For example, if you dye two sheep red and then breed them, their baby will be a red sheep as well. Breeding two differently colored sheep will either create a white sheep, a sheep of one the parent's colors, or the mixture. Whether this occurs in 100% of cases has not been established.
A rather strange way to capture sheep is to dig a 2 block deep hole. Make it as wide as you like. You can push sheep in, or simply wait for them to fall in themselves. Then lure them to an underground producing station, or at least put a roof over it to keep wolves away. Pigs and Cows and many other land mobs (including wolves, but keep them away from the sheep, before the wild wolves kill the sheep) can be caught this way.
Sheep will regrow their wool some time after they have been sheared, though in order for them to do this, they will need to eat grass or tall grass. Make sure sunlight gets to your breeding station.
Appearance[]
Sheep are the second mob to spawn with both a separate body and armor file, the first being the Pig. The sheep's armor is its wool, while pigs can wear a saddle on their back.
Sheep are wall-eyed and open-mouthed. This appearance seems to add to the humor seen when a sheep is jumping.
When a sheep is sheared, their skin will be exposed and polka-dotted white. Their ears are also exposed at the sides of their heads. The sheep's wool will grow back on them when the sheep eat grass or tall grass.
Sheep can be dyed any color while right-clicking with any color dye in the player's hand. When a dyed sheep is sheared, their colored wool will fall to the ground.
In the Beta 1.4 update, it was made possible for sheep to naturally spawn with black, brown, gray, pink, and light gray wool along with the traditional white. Despite this, the majority of sheep still spawn with white wool, and darker colors tend to be rarer. Dyes can also be applied directly to sheep, and shearing colored sheep produces dyed wool blocks of the corresponding color. This can be a more efficient method for dyeing wool for building projects, since sheep drop up to three wool blocks when sheared.
Before 1.4, brown wool was impossible to acquire due to the lack of Cocoa Beans necessary for dyeing. Players can now find the beans in dungeons and jungle trees, and brown sheep can be found naturally. Brown sheep can also be dyed; however, this is sometimes considered as wasteful.
Drops[]
Survival Test
- 1-3 White Wool (on hit)
- 0-2 Brown Mushrooms (on death)
Indev and Infdev
- 2 White Wool (on hit)
Alpha
- 1-3 White Wool (on hit)
Beta
- 1-3 Wool the same color as the sheep (when right-clicked with shears)
Sheep do not drop wool if they are damaged by environmental methods or a mob grinder. They will only drop wool by being hit directly by the player or use of the Shears. White wool can also be crafted from string dropped by spiders like this:. Sheep can drop different items based on what you do to them.If the players kill the sheep, it will drop only 1 block of wool and it will die. If a player shears it, it will drop 3 blocks of wool.
Trivia[]
- Like pigs, sheep have two skins: one for sheared, and one for when they are not sheared.
- A bit of a running gag among Minecraft fans is that sheep will wander onto rails at the same moment that the minecart arrives, thus halting the trip.
- According to some unconfirmed Minecraft lore, different colored sheep have various effects if "followed until they spin" they say this only applies to naturally spawned sheep and never to follow the pink sheep.
- Mutton is planned to become a new food in a future update that drops from a sheep.
- When an adult sheep eats, they will wiggle their head above the ground. When lambs eat, their head goes into the ground.
- All dyes (including Cocoa Beans, Ink sacks, Lapis Lazuli, and Bonemeal) can be applied to sheep to change their color and the color of the wool they produce.
- Since sheep jump up and down in a confined space, you can harness their energy using Pressure Plates to create redstone energy. Read More...
- In Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite, you can see an unsheared sheep's ears.
- If you are breeding black and white sheep, you will get a gray lamb.
- Rarely, a sheep will run around in circles for no apparent reason, this usually occurs on top of fences
- Naming a sheep Jeb's username (jeb_) will cause it's wool to cycle through all colors.
Sheep Colors[]
- White (Most common)
- Brown (Slightly rare)
- Black (Slightly rare)
- Light Grey (Slightly rare)
- Grey (Slightly rare)
- Pink (Most rare)
- Other colors (Must be dyed or modded)
Lamb[]
Template:MobA Lamb is made by giving two sheep wheat, making them go into love mode, producing a lamb. They have big heads and small bodies, like other baby mobs. They can have white, blue, yellow, pink, green, orange, magenta, light blue, lime, green, or purple wool on them. When killed, they drop nothing, and wool can only be obtained by them when they grow up.
Trivia[]
- A Lamb's wool can be dyed, just like a full-grown Sheep. However, lambs cannot be sheared.
- Lambs will inherit their parents color. If they're parents are different colors, then it is a 50-50 chance
Disco sheep[]
Disco sheep are a new type of sheep released in 1.7.4. Disco sheep (also called Jeb sheep and rainbow sheep) can be created when a player names a spawn egg "jeb_". When they spawn the sheep, it will constantly change the color of it's wool. It's colors consist of all the colors of the 16 wools. It has a fading rainbow effect. The wool dropped is the color in the rainbow they were.
Gallery[]
Template:Mobs