How to Share Farmville Love Potion Links on Facebook

Many of you may have already figured out that Farmville's new sheep breeding love potion is a two way street.  If you post love potions, five people can click on it and this will give you five love potions to use for sheep breeding.  However, in addition to you getting love potion, your friends also get a love potions for clicking.  So if you are ever in a situation where you want to share your love potion post with a few select friends, it is important that you know how to do this so that you are able to eventually get all five clicks from your friends.  There are several scenarios which you may find yourself in as far as sharing. 

1. Capturing Link Before Posting: The easiest way to share a love potion is to capture the link before you post.  Unfortunately Mac users cannot do this.  However, if you use a PC, wait until the publish post page comes up and right click on the picture of the love potions.  Then select, copy link location.  The exact wording may differ since I am not looking at a windows computer, but just be sure that you are not copying the image location.  Once you do this, open up chat, and send the link to the friends you wish to send to.  If you shared with less then 5 friends, there is no problem. Wait for confirmation that your friends saw the link and clicked, and then click publish on your potion.  Your potions will post with only 3 or 4 links, or however many you did not share.

2. Posting Link to Particular Friends: The second method for sharing love potion would be to post the potion to particular friends.  This method can be tricky since you don't want to loose potion if your friends do not click it in time.  Before publishing, select customize on the publish to lock image on the left of the publish button.  Select, publish to "specific people" in the first drop down menu.  Then type in the names of the people you want to share with and publish.  Remember to pick at least five people when doing this.  If you do not see them on line, you will want to send them a link to assure they see your post and click.  So go to your wall and right click on the word "give love potion" select copy link location or copy link.  Then make a message on Facebook to your friends, paste the link, and send. Ask your friends to let you know when they got it to assure that you get all five clicks.

3. Posting Viewable to You and Sharing Link: The third method of sharing love potion is to post the potion to yourself, share with a couple of friends and then re-post.  For those of you who have Macs, this may be the best option since you will not be able to grab the link before publishing.  So if you wish to use this method, go to the options box left of the publish button, and click on "only me" for who can view it.  Then go to your wall, and grab the link.  For PC users, right click, for Mac, click control and then click then copy the link location.  Send this link in chat or through a message.  If you have to re-post the remaining links to your wall, you will need to shorten the link or FB will not let you post it.  Also, if you are using this method, you may want to track the click numbers to assure you have all 5. I've included information on how to do this below.

How to Shorten a Link and Re-post it to your Wall
An excellent way to re post a link to your wall is to shorten it.  One site which offers free link shortening is, “bit.ly”  http://bit.ly/  Aside from shortening links, bit.ly allows you to customize link names and track the number of clicks on a link.  Additionally, if you choose to register with your e-mail address you can add the bit.ly sidebar to your bookmark menu for fast and easy access. 

Tracking Clicks on a your Link
One last note on sharing love potion is that it is a risky thing since you might not get all 5 potions from your post if one of your friends does not see the link or does not click in time.  One way to assure you got all 5 clicks is to use the tracking function on bit.ly.  After signing in and shortening your link, bit.ly has a section that you can go to which allows you to manage your links.  Click on this section and you will see the stats for how many clicks the link had.  This will also include info on the time the link was clicked and what country the clicks came from. 
Finally, all of these same methods can be used for sharing lamb links, tree links or any other type of post.  I hope that this information will help you to share your love potions more easily and without risking the loss of your own love potion in the process.

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Farmville Sheep Breeding: The Split Color, Masked, Flashing Sheep Combination

Many of you may have already come across images of the split color lamb and sheep and some of you may be well on your way to learning how to breed them.  Though the breeding rules may be less predictable due to the many different variables in this sheep, knowing more about them may help you in determining which sheep to pare them with in order to get your desired results.  So here is some basic information about the split color Lambs and Sheep.

  First of all this is an example of what the split color sheep looks like.  This type of lamb will most likely have a design, a base color, a secondary color, and in addition to this one or more special features such as split color, mask, or flashing features.

Here are two examples of sheep that may result from a split color lamb.  The Ram has a polka dot design, a purple secondary color as can be seen on the dots, and its base color is flashing.  In addition to having the flashing feature, it also has a mask and is split in color through the middle as you can see from the blue and the purple which are each flashing different colors. The Ewe has the same color family, a belted design, is flashing, has a mask and has the split color feature.
There is no doubt that the multi-feature sheep has got to be one of the neatest type of sheep on Farmville.  However, I wouldn't put it passed Zynga to come up with something even more spectacular.  So, when you get one of these sheep, you will want to know how to breed and share them.  Here is some information that can help.

Knowing What You've Got
There are a hand full of variations when it comes to the types of multi-feature sheep, so here are the elements that go into them.

Color: This includes a base color, secondary color and sometimes a third color. Flashing is a feature that is considered a color.

Design: Multi-feature sheep can have any of the existing designs in addition to special features.  The designs are Camo, Collar, Belted, Polka Dots, and Stars.

Features: The special Features so far are Flashing, Masked, Split Color, Electric, Popping, and Devil Sheep.  The split color lamb will usually have one or more of these features.

Getting a Split Color Lamb
I wish I could tell you the formula for producing your own multi-feature sheep, but if it it possible, this secret is still unknown to me.  So there is no need re-inventing the wheel when you can ask one of your friends to send one to you.  However, I must caution you that you may need to try to get this several times before you get a sheep that has all three features; Split color, Mask and Flashing.  From hear on out, I will abbreviate all three features as SMF. Make sure to ask your friend to breed two SMF for better chances of producing an SMF or to breed the Ewe SMF with a Ram with no special features.  Also, you want to ask them to send you an Ewe since special features behave like colors and are passed on primarily through the Ewe.  However, if they only have the SMF Ram, they should click on the Ram first when breeding.  Finally, even if your neighbor does all the right things, you may click on the split color lamb and place it on your farm to find the lamb color has changed to a flashing lamb or a mask lamb.  This is a strange occurrence indeed, but this means that you lost 2 of the 3 possible features and you will have just a flashing or a mask sheep.

Breeding a Multi-Feature Sheep
 Once you have a SMF sheep on your farm, you will be ready to breed.  You should try to get both an Ewe and a Ram SMF before you start to share so you will have better chances of your friend getting a SMF sheep.  Though breeding a multi-feature sheep follows much of the same rules that at I defined in How to Breed a Flashing sheep, you will find some differences and less certainly in the outcome.  I will start off with some of the differences and then recap the general rules that apply to breeding the different sheep features.

1. You can breed the same two SMF Sheep over and over and get different results each time.  Your may vary even more by choosing the Ewe first or the Ram first when breeding.  This may sound discouraging if you are trying for something in particular, but it is most likely due to having so many features which could be selected. 

2. You cannot tell what features you will get from a split color lamb.  You only know that it will have two or more of the special features. The only instance that this does not happen is when sharing; as I mentioned before, sometimes the lamb will become a mask or flashing type of lamb when placed on ones farm.  Another instance has been a case where the base design transferred from the Ewe to the Ram.  This Ram had only the Mask feature though it came from a split color lamb.

3. Pairing a SMF with a Sheep with one special feature such as a Flash or Mask Sheep most of the time removes the one or more of the special features in the resulting sheep. 

4. If you don't have two SMF, you will have better luck breeding an SMF Ewe with a plain design of Ram.  If you have only an SMF Ram, breed it with a patterned Ewe with no features, but select the Ram frist every time to favor the Ram's colors an features. The only bad thing is that you may get more Rams instead of Ewes doing this; however it is the best way to get the special features to go into the lamb. 

5. The best rule to follow for producing a SMF sheep, is to use two SMF sheep with two different base patterns.  For example, breed a Cam SMF Ram and a Belted SMF Ewe.  On the same token, you will have better chance of producing an SMF if you breed an SMF Ewe with a Ram that has a base design but no special features.

Though breeding multi-function sheep is still somewhat new, you may have more luck trying these types of combinations first.  As for the basics that apply to all sheep breeding here is a rundown of the most important factors which are Gender, Color, Design and Sequence Selection:

Gender: Rams = design/ Ewe = base color and special feature.  For multi-feature Sheep, it is best to have the color and special features in the Ewe when breeding. 

Color: Special features act like colors.  Sometimes it is easier to breed a particular design by breeding it with a sheep with a neutral color.  Likewise, with features, this seems to be a similarity since breeding an SMF with a sheep without features will often give you a SMF sheep. Colors and features compete with each other, so you are essentially eliminating the competition for color dominance.  With that said, lighter colors are less dominant than darker and brighter colors.

Design: Design is usually determined by the Ram.  However, in some instances the Ewe's design will be selected.  Most of the time this happens when you select the Ram first for breeding.  With respect to breeding in general, you should breed the Ram with the design you want, and then select the Ewe first to favor the Ram's design.  With respect to multi-feature sheep, breeding two different designs seems to give better chances of getting a SMF sheep with all three special features.

Sequence Selection: Deciding which sheep to select first can change the outcome of the resulting sheep.  Here are some factors to remember.  Selecting the Ram first favors the Ram's color, special features, and gender and may sometimes give you the Ewe's design.  Selecting the Ewe first will favor the Ewe's base color, special features and gender.  Most of the time, selecting the Ewe first will give you the Ram's design.  Though these rules remain, it gets very confusing with the mult-feature sheep since there are so many different factors to choose from.

I hope that this information on split color lambs and multi-feature sheep will be helpful to you.  The most important thing to remember is that the special features are dominant in the Ewe, so get the Ewe first.  Also, breed different base designs in order to have the best chance of getting a Split Color, Mask, Flashing Sheep.  As you know, Zynga changes how things work from time to time.  So, please feel free to post comments about changes if this happens.

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Farmville Sheep Breeding: How to Breed a Flashing Sheep

If you are experiencing difficulty in breeding the new Flashing sheep in Farmville, you are not alone.  It seems that all aspects surrounding obtaining, breeding and sharing Flashing Sheep have the potential to bewilder.  Since the first step to breeding Flashing sheep is obtaining a flashing sheep, I wish that I could share the formula for breeding one from scratch.   However, I have not heard of one instance where a Flashing Sheep was produced from breeding non-Flashing Sheep.  Though, I am sure this had to happen somewhere along the line, you may have better chances of wining the lottery than getting a 

Flashing sheep from breeding the non-flashing sheep on your farm. 
With that said, the first step to obtaining a Flashing sheep is to ask one of your neighbors to send you a Flashing sheep lamb.  Before clicking on the link your friend sends you, be sure that you have not adopted a sheep in the last 24 hours.  If you have, wait and then click on the links after the 24 hours mark has passed.  After you have your first Flashing sheep, you will likely feel relieved to finally have one; however, this is only the beginning.  Figuring out how to breed the Flashing sheep and produce more has proven to be tricky.  I have provided a breakdown of the four factors that go into successful breeding of your first Flashing sheep.  The factors listed below are sheep gender, color, design, and sequence selection for breeding. Also, remember that Flashing is considered a feature behaves like sheep color.

Flashing Sheep Example. You cannot see the flash, but notice the metallic look to it.

Gender
Generally, it is best to pass on a design through a Ram.  However, with the Flashing design, it isn’t clear whether this type of sheep is electronically coded as a color type or a design.  Each flashing sheep actually has it’s own design; so it is more likely that “Flashing” is considered a color.  If this is the case, having the flashing Ewe will be better than having the Ram, since the base color generally comes from the Ewe.  In the Flashing sheep, the part of the sheep that flashes is the base color of the design.  In the Camo design, this is the innermost color and in the star and polka dot sheep, the base color is the color around the stars or polka dots.

Color
Once you have a Flashing sheep, the color of the sheep that you pair it with may determine whether or not you get a Flashing lamb from the union.  If you have a Flashing Ewe, you should try to pair the Ewe with the lightest color possible.  The reason for doing this is that darker and brighter colors are more dominant than light colors.  This means that a darker or brighter color has a greater likelihood of appearing in the resulting sheep.  Since the colors that are in the Flashing sheep are darker and brighter, colors, you want those colors to be selected over the light color.  If you use a sheep with a dark base color, this dark color may end up in the lamb instead of the Flashing colors.

Design
The different types of designs are Camo, Star, Polka Dot, Belted, Collar, and plain.  Since the Flashing feature is coded like a color, the disign of sheep does not make much of a difference.  However, if you have difficulty breeding your first Flashing sheep, it may be best to reduce the factors and use a plain design or the same design on both sheep.  You may also try breeding the Flashing sheep with a lighter color.  The least number of variables thrown into the union, the better.  An Example of using the least number of variables is demonstrated in the following combination:

Solid white Ram + Flashing Camo Ewe = Solid Flashing Ram. 

This example, which came from an actual breed, follows the regular rules: Ewe = base color (flashing) and Ram = Design (solid color).  Once you have produced your first Flashing sheep, feel free to experiment with different designs.  I have seen Flashing sheep in every possible design.  So if you have a Flashing Ewe, have fun pairing it with Rams of all different designs and see what you get.

Selection Sequence
I cannot say that I understand everything about breeding sequence selection, but I have taken note of some trends that may help you determine the breeding outcome.  Once you have selected the Ram and Ewe that you will breed and have placed them in your sheep pen, you must decide which one you will select for breeding first.  The one you select first has a good chance of effecting what colors and gender will be selected for the resulting sheep.  Here are some observations with respect to selection.

1.     When selecting the Ram first, you have a higher chance of getting a boy lamb.

2.     When selecting the Ewe first, your resulting Sheep is most likely going to have the base color of the Ewe and the design of the Ram.

3.     When selecting the Ram first, there is a stronger chance that the resulting sheep will follow the secondary color of the Ram instead of the sheep.  It does not happen often, but it is also possible that the Ewe design could be selected.  However, the most likely result from selecting the Ram first is that the resulting sheep will have the design and the colors of the Ram.

If you follow the general rules by selecting the Ewe first, and do not get the results you expected, try changing the selection sequence and try the Ram first. The best thing to remember with respect to selection sequence is that the sheep you select first is favored in color and in gender.  Click the Ewe first to have higher chances of a girl with the Ewe colors.  Click the Ram first for higher chances of a boy with the Ram colors.

Sharing a Flashing Lamb
If you would like to share Flashing sheep with your neighbors, the best thing to do is to have both a flashing Ewe and a Flashing Ram.  Once you have one of each, you know that you can breed them and share Flashing sheep with your friends.  Since it is more likely that the “Flashing” feature is considered a color, it will be best to share an Ewe with your friend so they can breed their Flashing sheep more easily.  Though breeding two Flashing sheep, will give you the best chances for producing a Flashing sheep lamb, you can be sure of this by assuring the lamb has the autumn or rust like color.  If the lamb looks like a regular color and not an autumn like or rusty color, keep it since it probably will not produce a Flashing sheep.

Flashing Lamb Example
Overall, I believe that breeding Flashing Sheep is not as difficult as it may seem.  Just remember to keep it simple at first until you have at least one Flashing Ram and one Flashing Ewe.  After that, feel free to experiment and mix and match all different colors and designs.  Have fun with the beauties.  One of the greatest things about Farmville sheep breeding is the infinite number of possibilities.

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Farmville Sheep Breeding: How to Breed a Masked Sheep

If you have already read my article, How to Breed a Flashing Sheep, you are well on your way to breeding you first Masked sheep.  Since both the Flashing sheep and the Masked sheep are coded the same as sheep colors, they follow a lot of the same rules.  However, some differences exist, so I have provided a summary of the rules that you will need to follow for the best and fastest results when breeding Masked sheep.  The concepts that you need to remember when breeding are gender, color, design, and sequence selection. 

1.     Obtaining a Lamb: Since the origins of the first Masked sheep are still unknown to me and to anyone I’ve ever asked, I cannot tell you how to produce a Masked sheep from scratch.  So the first step to breeding a Masked sheep is to ask one of your Farmville neighbors to send you a Masked lamb. 

2.     Gender Selection:  Before asking a friend for a lamb, you should be aware of the sheep gender differences.  If you want to breed a particular design, it is best to ask your neighbor to send you a boy lamb since the design gene is strongest in the Ram.  However, if you want to breed a particular color, you should ask for a girl lamb with the desired base color.  Since the Mask feature in sheep is coded similar to a color, it is best to ask for a girl lamb.  It is not impossible to get the mask from breeding a Masked Ram, but it is considerably more difficult.

3.     Color: Once you have your first Masked sheep, you are ready to breed it.  If you have an Ewe, you should have no problem breeding Masked sheep.  However, if you do run into difficulty, make sure the Ram you are using has a lighter color.  Since lighter colors are less dominant, you will have better chances of the Masked color being selected in the resulting lamb.  Another note on color is that you will know that you have a masked lamb by the albino or extremely bright appearance of the lamb.  If that sounds confusing now, you will recognize the difference between a regular lamb and a masked lamb when you see one.

4.     Design: When breeding your Masked sheep, always be aware that the design will most likely be the design of the Ram.  So if you have a Masked Ewe and a Camo Ram, it is likely you will get a Camo Masked sheep.  The design does not make a lot of difference when breeding Masked sheep.  However, if you run into any difficulty in breeding, you will have better chances if you use a Ram with the same design of the Masked Ewe and vice versa.  You will also have better chances using no design when coupling with the Masked sheep.  This just simplifies things since different designs are more likely to create mutations or exceptions to the general rules.

5.     Sequence Selection: Finally, one of the most important aspects in breeding a Masked Sheep is the sequence selection when breeding.  If you have a Masked Ewe and a non Masked Ram, you should select the Ewe first and then the Ram.  Selecting the Ewe first favors the Ewe’s color as well as the Ewe’s gender.  This will give you better chances of getting a Masked color in the lamb.  However, if you have a Mask Ram and a non-mask Ewe, breeding may be more difficult, but not impossible.  Be sure to select the Ram first in this instance, which will give preference to the Ram’s color and gender.  If you get another Mask Ram, do not worry; just keep selecting the Ram first until you get a Masked Ewe.

Tips for Breeding a Masked Ram
If you were fortunate enough to get a Masked sheep from one of your friends but you got a Ram instead of an Ewe, you can still get the Masked feature but you will have to work harder to do so.  The first thing you should try is to couple the Masked Ram with an Ewe with light colors or with a white Ewe.  Second, you should select the Ram first.  If you get a non-Masked Ram from this, keep trying but with another sheep.  Once you get a non-Masked Ewe, place that new Ewe in with your Masked Ram.  This may sound like incest, but for the purpose of Farmville sheep breeding, it works nicely since it compounds the DNA and also forces a mutation.  You will be more likely to get another Masked sheep from doing this, and hopefully it will be an Ewe.  Once you get your Masked Ewe, use this instead of the Ram.  Only use the Ram if you want to couple it with a Masked Ewe and have better chances of getting a Masked lamb.

Once you have a good base of Masked sheep, you can start having fun with breeding all of the different possibilities.  Since the Masked feature acts in the same way as a base color, you can make many combinations of designs and base colors to create the most interesting and neat looking sheep.  Remember also that Zynga changes how things work from time to time, so feel free to post a comment if you discover any variations or changes to these rules.

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Farmville Orchard Tips: Step-up Production of New English Countryside Trees

For those of us who were well on your way to Orchard and Tree Harvesting Superstardom, we have plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the new trend in Farmville Trees.  Since the launching of the English Countryside, all of the new trees have only been available for purchase and placement in the English Countryside.  This means that if you had a plethora of orchards lined up on your home farm, none of these orchards can help you speed up the process of getting seedlings for the new types of trees.  The fact that these new trees can only be purchased in the English Countryside means that you must start from scratch with your orchards and wait much longer to get one of those precious seedlings with the level 2 tree. 

The result of this change has been a major setback in new tree production across the board. With all of the things we must build on our new farm as well as seasonal item requests and the demand for bottles to feed lambs, our neighbors are sending less and less building materials.  This makes it even more difficult to build just a handful of orchards to give you better chances of getting a seedling for your new trees. Since people don’t generally have the parts for mass orchard construction, it has become a rarity to see a new tree posted to your news feed.  However, frustrating this is, I am here let you know that you do not have to fret over this change.  Once you get past the initial stage of acquiring a new tree seedling, you will be able to grow that seedling and multiply the new tree just as you did before.  If you haven’t already figured out how to do this, here is how.

1.     Build as many orchards as you can manage on your new farm and keep building as you get materials.  The lack of orchards may put you back four to six days before you are able to get a seedling.  That is why it is important to keep building.

2.     Keep one new tree in each orchard.  I'm not sure how this works yet, but I heard the FV is allowing us to have both farms progress at the same time.  Make sure that it is on this setting or stay in the English Countryside when you are away from you computer.

3.     When the trees are ready, harvest one, then remove the tree and place it in the next ready orchard.  Harvest the next orchard and move both to the next orchard.  Keep moving all the trees until you get to the last orchard.  This is not the best method of getting a seedling, but with limited numbers of orchards, increasing the number of trees will at least increase your chances of getting a seedling.  Make sure you have at least three of the new trees; though four or five would be and ideal minimum.

4.     Once you get a seedling, keep it in your gift box. Keep moving trees until the all of your ready orchards have been harvested.  Depending on how many orchards you are able to build, you may get a small handful of seedlings.  I got two seedlings yesterday with only five ready orchards and seven new trees once I got to the final orchard.

5.     Now that you have these seedlings, return to your home farm.  Grow the seedlings on your home farm and place the level 2 trees one of your orchards.

6.     Follow the steps for producing 100% new trees from seedlings.  In short, move the new trees two to three at a time from ready orchard to ready orchard.  You will have little to no luck if only moving one tree.  Each orchard should have one newish tree in it to make it ready.  When moving the new trees, alternate numbers of trees for better chances of getting a seedling.

7.     Lastly, if you are on your English Countryside farm, breeding sheep be sure to return to your home farm so that your orchards will grow.  If you leave when you are on your new farm, no progress will be made on your old farm.  However, FV has a new setting to let both farms progress at the same time.  Be sure to have it on that setting.

The little known fact that you are able to transfer these level 2 English Countryside trees over to your home farm is the key to mass, producing them.  Once you have a handful of seedlings in your home farm, keep doing the same thing and keep spreading the new trees to your neighbors.  Furthermore, if you are lucky enough to adopt one of the new trees off your feed, just make sure to put it on your home farm where you have your orchards built up and can multiply it much more efficiently than you can on your English Countryside.  I hope that all of you avid tree harvesters will start using this method and I look forward to seeing new tree posts return to the game once again.

Farmville Addiction: Is Farmville Rotting Your Brain?

Is your Farmville Addiction causing you to loose brain cells?  The answer is most definitely yes!  Farmville, like many other on-line games can suck you in for months and possibly years at a time.  So much of your free time is tied up in this mindless activity, and when it comes to brain cells, if you don't use them, you loose them.  Likewise, it has been proven that the pursuit of knowledge exercises the brain by keeping it active and therefor keeping the brain sharp.  The sad fact is that even though we may understand this, many Farmville addicts may still opt for playing rather than reading. 

However, the good news that I wish to share is that you can start loading your dormant brain cells with knowledge without quitting.  I'm not talking about turning you into a genius, but you can most certainly increase your IQ while playing.  In fact, you can learn about any subject of your choosing or even get a graduate degree, as I am doing, all while feeding your Farmville Addiction.  You might be wondering how this is possible.  Well here is the answer:

Playing Farmville is for the most part a brainless activity.  We do a lot of clicking such as collecting rewards or gift requests, decorating, moving trees this way, moving animals that way.  Unless we are interacting with our FV neighbors, playing Farmville requires very little concentration.  Given this fact, this means our brains are free to receive input during the hours and hours that we are glued to our computer.    I have listed several methods below that you can use in order to start feeding your brain knowledge while you play Farmville. 

1.     Load Free Audio Books to your iPod and listen to whatever subjects you would like to learn about while you play.  A great source of free audio books is www.librivox.org.  If you wish to listen to novels or more current literature, check out www.audible.com.

2.     Buy books or a newspaper subscription on your Kindle and turn on Text-to-Speech.  Your Kindle will read the book to you while you tend your farms. For more information on Kindle e-book readers, visit www.amazon.com and type in Kindle.

3.     Download Free e-books and turn on the speech function on your computer.  Go to www.gutenberg.org for thousands of free e-books with many topics, and in many formats.  Note: Depending on your computer the speech function on your computer may interfere with your game.

Among these three options, my personal favorite is using the Kindle text-to-speech function.  The reason, I prefer this is because I am able to buy my textbooks for my graduate courses and listen to them while I breed sheep and harvest my orchards.  In fact, I finish all of my required reading ahead of time and can load articles off the Internet onto my Kindle and keep listening.  I have time to read all of the supplemental materials as well as things I want to read that are not related to my coursework.  

So, can Farmville Addiction make you smarter?  Most Definitely.  However, most of the time it is just rotting our brains.  I call upon all Farmville Addicts to stop wasting brain cells and start pumping them up.  Listen to history, science, current events… or whatever topic interests you the most.  I guarantee you will feel better about all of the hours and hours you dump down the toilet while playing the game you most definitely adore and cannot do without. 

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology 


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Farmville Sheep Breeding: How to Get Rare Designs and Colors

 The rules in this article no longer apply.  For the new sheep breeding patterns, refer to New Farmville Sheep Breeding Patterns  - added May/2011.

I know I’m not the only one who has been beating their head against the wall, breeding sheep one after another in attempt to produce one of the rare types of sheep designs.  No matter what I try, I fail to discover the key to breeding a Star Sheep, a Belted Sheep, a Camo Sheep, a Masked Sheep or a Flashing Sheep without one of these sheep already being on my farm.  After trying so many combinations, I finally started to ask around for answers.  To my relief, the answer I found from everyone I asked was that they got their rare sheep designs from one of their Farmville friends.  So I stopped trying to reinvent the wheel and asked my neighbors to send me a lamb so I could start breeding these beauties as well.

Though, sharing lambs may seem easy, you can only adopt one lamb per day, so you want to assure that you are sharing the lamb, which has the design or color your neighbor is looking for.  Likewise, knowing what to ask for, will assure your neighbor gives you the type of lamb, which gives you what you are looking for.  In order to breed and share the rare designs and colors, take note of the breeding rules below.

Lamb Request Rules

1.     If you are asking your neighbor for a particular design, be sure to ask for a Ram.  Though it is possible to try and try and finally get a particular design from an Ewe, you will waste love potion, bottles and your time doing this.  Ask for a Ram with the particular design since the Ram determines the design.

2.     If you are requesting a particular color or special feature, be sure to ask your neighbor for an Ewe with that base color or feature since the base color comes from the Ewe whereas the secondary color comes from the Ram.  The base color in a camo design, is the inner color.  In a star or Polka dot sheep, the base color is the body and not the star or Polka dot color.  One way to know that you have the correct base color is that the lamb color will correspond to the base color of the Ewe.  Be aware also, that the flashing, masked, and split color features are coded like colors.  So if you want to capture those and be able to breed these features easily, ask your neighbor for a flashing, masked, or split color Ewe.
BASE COLOR - GREEN/ SECONDARY-BLACK
BASE COLOR-BLACK/ SECONDARY-RED

So remember:
Ram=Design, secondary color
Ewe=Base color, special features
Breading New Designs

Once you receive a Ram with the rare design, you will want to breed it and create other sheep with that design.  One good practice when doing this is to name sheep by the description of parents.  For Example: Black with Purple Polka dot Ram + Green Ewe could be BlkPrpPokaRam+GrEwe.  By naming your sheep you don’t have to worry about forgetting what combinations you have already tried.  You can also check your sheep names to identify which sheep have particular DNA that may not be visible.

So if your friend sends you a Ram, match it with any Ewe but preferably a plain color at first.  The resulting sheep should be the design of the Ram.  If you don’t get the design on the first try, select the Ewe first when breeding and then the select the Ram.
If you friend sends you an Ewe, try breeding the Ewe with different designs and colors in attempt to force a mutation.  You can also try selecting the Ram first and then the Ewe when breeding.  The best thing will always be to get the Ram instead of an Ewe since the Ram carries the dominant gene for sheep design.

Breeding New Color
After receiving an Ewe with the base color you are looking for, breed this Ewe with a Ram and the resulting sheep will have the Ram’s design and the Ewe’s base color.  For best results pick the Ewe before the Ram when breeding.
If you receive a Ram with the new base color, getting that color to appear in a sheep will be a matter of luck.  Try combing it with other rare colors and designs to fish for a mutation.  Try selecting the Ram first each time since this will have a better chance of favoring the Ram color.  I have had the best luck with breeding the Ram with its offspring of the same design which compounds the DNA.  If you do this, be sure also to select the Ram before the Ewe when breeding.  None of these methods guarantee that you will capture the color, so the best thing is to get the Ewe.

Successful Lamb Sharing
Now that you have the rare sheep design or colors, you can share these designs and colors with your friends.  Though this may seem simple, you want to assure you are sharing the right lamb.

Sharing Designs
If you want to share a design, Breed your Ram with the desired design with an Ewe with the same design.  This will assure that there is not chance of a mutation.  You can be 100% sure that your friend will receive the right sheep design.

Sharing Color
Sharing a color is a lot easier since the base color will be reflected in the lamb color.  If your friend wants the bright green color, your lamb will be green.  You will figure out the corresponding colors when breeding your own sheep.  For best results, breed the Ewe with the desired base color with a simple color of Ram.  The colors in the Ram should not be other rare colors, which will compete with the Ewe’s color.  Once you get the correct color of girl lamb, you know that it is safe to share.
Note: With respect to special features, the lamb will often look distinctly different.  The flashing color will have a rust or autumn color of lamb, the mask color will have an albino or extremely bright color of lamb, the electric will have the base color plus a faint outline, and the split color lamb will be a split color sheep.  Here are some examples of what they may look like.

Flashing Sheep Lamb Masked Sheep Lamb

Electric Sheep Lamb Split Color Sheep Lamb

Though there are always exceptions to rules and as well as the chance that Zynga may change things, these are presently the best rules to follow in order to get the right type of rare design or color you want and to share the right type as well. 

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Farmville Sheep Breeding Patterns

The rules in this article no longer apply.  For the new sheep breeding patterns, refer to New Farmville Sheep Breeding Patterns  - added May/2011.
 
As Farmville’s sheep breeding is still in its infancy, it is not surprising that there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how it works.  Some of the most common questions are how to get different sheep designs, how to determine new sheep colors, and how to get new lamb colors.  Though I am unaware of the origins of sheep designs such as Stars, Belted, and Camo, these designs can generally be obtained by asking your neighbors for a ram with this design.  However, with respect to color, I have been able to identify patterns in how the different sheep designs interact with each other while breeding.  I have also discovered which colors will result after coupling different designs of sheep.  Here is a breakdown of these patterns:

Design and Color Basics
The design is determined by the design of the Ram
The base color is determined by the base color of the Ewe
The second and third color is determined by the second and third color of the Ram
Lamb color corresponds to the base color of the Ewe and will be the base color of the resulting Sheep.
Example1: Ewe base color =red/Lamb = red/Resulting Sheep base color=red
Here you see a reddish color lamb (will make a flashing sheep)
This is the reddish sheep (flashing). Notice the base color is red like the lamb.

Example Key
1.     = base color
2.     = secondary color
3.     = third color

Example2: 1-White 2-Green Camo Ram + 1-Red 2-Purple Camo Ewe = Red lamb = 1-Red 2-Green Camo Sheep

Note: The ram’s secondary color is Green so green becomes the secondary color of the resulting sheep.
Example3: (Polka dot color is secondary) 1-White 2-Purple Polka dot Ram+ 1-Black 2-Green Ewe = black lamb = 1-Black 2-Purple Polka dot Sheep

Note: Notice the Polka dot design is selected since the Ram is a Polka dot design.  This is the most frequent result when selecting the Ewe first in breeding; however, it is possible to get the design of the Ewe if try several times using and select the Ram first when breeding.

Creating a Mutation in Base or Lamb Color
You can produce a new lamb color by matching two different designs of multi-color sheep, which are very different colors from each other.  Often a new color of lamb will appear from such a union.  This is not an exact science since you do not know what the new base color will be until you see the lamb color.
Though there are likely plenty of other rules that apply to sheep breeding, these are some that you can start using right away in order to make your desired colors of sheep.
Note: The tests used for discovering these patterns were done by selecting the Ewe for breeding first and then the Ram.  Selecting the Ram first may switch up the color and pattern rules at times. Furthermore, be aware that there will always be exceptions that are not listed here and Zynga will often changes how things work.

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