Sheep are one of the most plentiful and useful mobs encountered in Minecraft. They can often be found wandering throughout the Overworld. The main purpose of sheep is to supply Wool and Raw Mutton (or Cooked Mutton, if killed while on fire).
Appearance[]
A group of dyed sheep, and their colored offspring.
An adult sheep measures 1.25 blocks tall, by 0.625 blocks wide, by 1.4375 blocks long. Like sheep in the real world, they walk on all fours. Sheep naturally spawn with wool colored white, black, gray, light gray, brown, and (rarely) pink. The majority have white coats. Natural sheep colors occur as follows:
- White (81.836%)
- Black (5%)
- Gray (5%)
- Light Gray (5%)
- Brown (3%)
- Pink (0.164%)
Through the use of dyes, it's possible to change a sheep's coat to any dye colour:
- White
- Black
- Gray
- Light Gray
- Brown
- Pink
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Lime Green
- Cactus Green
- Light Blue
- Cyan
- Blue
- Magenta
- Purple
Rainbow Sheep[]
Sheep named "jeb_" with a Name Tag are a new type of sheep released in update 1.7.4. Disco sheep (also called Jeb sheep and rainbow sheep) can be created when a player names a spawn egg "jeb_", or by using a name tag to name an existing sheep "jeb_". When the sheep spawns, its wool will constantly cycle through the 16 possible colors with a fading rainbow effect.
The real rainbow sheep can be found in Minecraft earth.
The color of wool a disco sheep will drop is unaffected by its rainbow coloring. Instead, it will drop wool of its original color before the rainbow effect was added.
The "Wololo" Spell[]
Illager Evokers turn all blue sheep in the world red. If there are blue sheep around, evokers can get distracted by this task during a raid, potentially opening up an advantage for the player.
Behavior[]
Sheep are passive mobs that wander around the overworld. When they encounter an obstacle, they will often try to jump over it (sometimes even when the obstacle cannot be overcome). They run away when attacked. They will not attempt to stay out of Water, and it is common to see several sheep bobbing in the water, along with other animals. Sheep often Spawn in groups of 2-8. All sheep behave the same, regardless of their color.
Naturally, sheep will roam around and eat Grass. When a sheep eats grass, they make a crunching sound similar to that of placing down or walking on a Dirt block. After consuming grass, the block the sheep has eaten from will become bare dirt, until grass regrows on it. In the case of Tall Grass, the block will just vanish. However, if /gamerule mobGriefing is set to false, the block will stay as grass and not change to dirt. If a sheep has the opportunity, the chance of it eating grass is 1⁄1000 per game tick (1⁄50 for lambs).
Farming[]
Sheep can easily be farmed by placing them within a Fenced area since they cannot jump out. Sheep will follow a player while Wheat is held in their hand. They can be difficult to 'corral' into a fenced area without wheat because they tend to run to the nearest opening in the fence or exit through a hole.
One method to capturing sheep is to dig a 2-block-deep hole. Make it as wide as desired. Sheep can be pushed in, led in with wheat, or one can simply wait for them to fall in themselves. Lure them to an underground producing station (or somewhere with a roof over it) to keep wolves away. Pigs, cows, and many other land mobs can be caught in this way as well.
When a sheep is sheared, their skin will be exposed and polka-dotted white. The patches are always white (this won't happen in the Bedrock Edition), regardless of the color of the wool. Their ears are also exposed at the sides of their heads. Sheep will regrow their wool sometime after they have been sheared, though, for them to do this, they will need to eat grass or tall grass. Sunlight must also reach the area where they are penned in. It can easily be told when a sheep has re-grown its wool as its appearance will change from the patchy "shorn" look to normal.
Dyes can 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. Sheep can be dyed any color by right-clicking them while dye is held in hand.
Breeding[]
Sheep can be multiplied by feeding two sheep, that are standing close to each other, Wheat. A baby Lamb is produced, which has a big head and small body, like other baby mobs. If killed, lambs drop nothing, and wool can only be obtained from them after they grow into adults. If two parent sheep are of the same color, they produce a lamb of the same color. For example, if two sheep are dyed <spanstyle="color:#993333;">Red, and they are bred then their lamb will be a red sheep as well. Breeding two different colored sheep will either create a white sheep, a sheep of one the parent's colors, or a mixture of the two.
Drops[]
- 1 Wool when killed by a player, 1-3 if sheared, 4 if in 1 HP and shear it
- Raw Mutton ( Cooked Mutton if the sheep dies while on fire)
Trivia[]
The effect which occurs when a sheep is named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" on their Name Tag.
- A bit of a running gag among Minecraft fans is that sheep will wander onto rails at the same moment that a minecart arrives, thus halting the trip. However, this is not true since mobs do not walk across rails unless they are in pursuit of a player (for any reason).
- When an adult sheep eats, they will wiggle their head above the ground. When lambs eat, their head goes into the ground.
- All dyes 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, their energy can be harnessed using Pressure Plates to create redstone energy.
- Rarely, a sheep will run around in circles for no apparent reason. This usually occurs on top of fences.
- A sheep that has been sheared will appear to turn white, but it will return to the color it had before shearing when its wool regrows. However, this is not the case in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.
- Pink sheep seem to have a higher chance of naturally spawning in the Extreme Hills Biome.
- Like all entities, naming a sheep "Grumm" or "Dinnerbone" will cause it to move normally, but visually upside down.
- Sheep can eat grass even if they are stepping in any type of slab.
- Sheep can eat grass even if they are inside a Minecart.
- Before the Minecraft 1.8 update, if a sheep had an invisibility potion effect, then its wool would still be visible.
- If a player punches a sheep seven times, and then punch it and shear it at the same time, the Sheep can drop up to four pieces of wool.
- Shearing sheep is a more efficient means of obtaining wool than simply killing sheep.
- Before Beta 1.4, brown wool was impossible to acquire because Cocoa Beans did not exist, and sheep did not spawn in the color brown.
- In Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, sheep used to simply stare at a player, even when attacked.
- 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 their parents are different colors, then it is a 50-50 chance. It may also inherit a combination of both the colors.
- Lambs eat grass much faster and more often than adult sheep.
- Evokers can change a sheep's wool color to red if its wool is blue, but this won't happen if the gamerule mobGriefing is turned off.
- If a sheep is named Jeb, it will begin to cycle through all the colors a sheep can be.
- However, the wool given/dropped when sheared is the color it originally was.
- Sheep can be found in village pens as of 1.14.
Gallery[]
