Oh God! That stature, her way of walking as if she has created the world. You can not guess either she is a queen or a princess or a top model. But she is right, she should not be modest. If I ere her, I would not be either. In fact, she is like a sister to us. Not that far, from our neighbor Greece. She is so closely that she did not have difficulty to adapt even for a minute. She instatntly got used to our culture, our tradition, our air and our water as if she has been living with us for many years.
We also have a young man that should be mentioned as well. His posture, weight, handsomeness and womanizing is like a gentleman. You should see him that he knocks spots off to the experienced actors.
Maybe you guessed, I spoke of the Chios sheep in an epic manner, which is one of the most lactiferous sheep breeds that has the most milk and progency productivity and the most calving fertility in the world. I do not know whether it is beacuse that I am from İzmir or because that we have raised this sheep in my childhood, but I'm in love with this sheep. At those days, we always had the sheep yogurt and cheese in our house. Excellent sheep yogurt, it is fatty, with plenty of cream, nutritious ...
The Chios sheep has taken its name from the Chios island located 15 km across the Çesme town. Usually it is generally breeded in Çesme, Urla, Karaburun and Seferihisar, the places we call as peninsula in Izmir. In the course of time, the stock farming of these ships had been tried in the coastlines of Aydın, Muğla and Çanakkale, the cities dominated by Mediterranean climate, farming and achieved positive results.
The Chios sheep is gentle, it can not live in anywhere. There should be plenty of interest and concern. Otherwise it easily becomes sick. It does not like the cold, does not stroll around a lot and does not eat every grass it finds; in other words it is selective. Their adaptability is low. As you can see, it does not like the crowd, it is not an animal of large herd. It would be more efficient if it is breeded in small herds. An important point is, as farer as it is gone away from the coast it loses its peculiarity of productivity.
Morphological characteristics of the Chois sheep: Its body is large and narrow and legs are long. Its head, legs and abdomen are completey fat-free. There are black spots on its eyes, mouth, nose tip, ears and feet. Black or brown hairs, sometimes one and sometimes in small clusters, are found in its fleece wool cloth. There arelack markings on the knees and elbows. Its skin color is white, but there are small spots. The head part is completely fat-free. The females are hornless, and the men have great spiral horns. Its tail structure has a triangular-looking, usually thin, fat-free and long. The base of the tail is a little more fatty. Increase within the amount of oil can be considered as an indicator showing that it is not pure. The nozzle structure is glandular. It is convenient for plenty of milk yield, large, pendulous and its nipples are usually large. When milked, they are flabby and when filled with milk they are swollen. It has more than two nipples. There are black markings on the nail.
Productivity Features of the Chios sheep: As we mentioned briefly just above, the Chios sheep is one of the world's most productive sheep breeds, so let us explain a little about its efficiency pecularities. Chios sheep and has high abilities both in the milk productivity and in the progency productivity. With its high lactation period, it is well ahead the leader among the other native sheep breeds. Also, this sheep breed has a high ratio in giving birth to twins and triplets. If it is nursed in a suitable environment and fed properly, 3 lambing can be achieved within 2 years. Thus, the welfare of the producer increases economically.
The lambing rate of Chios sheep is between 1.7 - 2.3. So, from 100 Chios sheep, it is possible to obtain lambs between 170 and 230. Also its age in using for the first breeding is low. The female Chios which access to sexual maturity in 8-9 months of age can be taken immediately to the mating of sheep. We should not forget that all these performance criteria is possible with the suitable climate, shelter conditions and feeding.
The purebred Chios sheep are among the endangered sheep breeds. The Ministry of Agriculture is aware of this fact and tries to prevent the extinction of these animals by the Genetic Resources Conservation Projects. Again, Improvement Projects In The Hands Of General Public continue under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture.
As our Minister of Agriculture mentioned, the geography of the country is in a suitable structure for the sheep farming. The improvement of the existing animal existence unfortunately has been ignored in our country. We need to get meat and milk production a step further by breeding animals of good quality. The Chios sheep is also extremely important in terms of the country's livestock breeding. Such that, by crossbreeding the Tahirova sheep and the Chios sheep, the highly efficient Sönmez sheep has been obtained by the Aegean University Faculty of Agriculture. Thus, both the economy of our producers and the economy of the country will be affected positively.
