So, you’re wandering through a pixelated field, sword in hand, and you see a boring white sheep. It’s fine. It gives you wool. But honestly? It’s a bit dull compared to the chaos you can actually create in this game. If you want to spice up your base, you need a jeb_ sheep. That’s the "technical" term for the rainbow sheep, a legendary little Easter egg that has been in Minecraft since the 1.7.4 update released back in 2013. It’s old school, but it never gets old.
Making a rainbow sheep isn't about potions or weird mods. It’s a simple name tag trick. But if you mess up the punctuation, it just won't work.
Getting Your Tools Ready for the jeb_ Trick
First off, you can’t just yell at the sheep. You need a name tag. These things are surprisingly annoying to find if you aren't living near a village. You can find them in dungeon chests, mineshafts, or by fishing—though fishing takes forever unless you have Luck of the Sea III. If you’re lucky enough to have a Master-level Librarian villager, they’ll sell you one for a few emeralds. Grab it.
You also need an anvil.
Basic stuff: three blocks of iron and four iron ingots. Set it down, pop the name tag in the first slot, and get ready to type. This is where people usually fail. You have to type jeb_ exactly like that. All lowercase. No capital J. And you absolutely cannot forget the underscore at the end. That underscore is the magic ingredient that tells the game code to cycle through the color palette.
It costs one level of XP to rename the tag. If you’re at level zero, go kill a couple of zombies or mine some coal. Once you have your "jeb_" tag, you’re holding a piece of Minecraft history in your hand.
How to Make Rainbow Sheep Without Losing Your Mind
Now, find your victim. I mean, your sheep.
Walk up to any sheep—color doesn't actually matter, though most people pick white—and right-click it with the name tag. Boom. The wool starts shifting. It’s a smooth gradient that cycles through all sixteen dyed colors available in the game: white, orange, magenta, light blue, yellow, lime, pink, gray, light gray, cyan, purple, blue, brown, green, red, and black.
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It’s mesmerizing.
But here is the catch that trips everyone up: the wool it drops isn't rainbow. If you shear a rainbow sheep, you get the original color of the sheep before you named it. If it was a white sheep that you turned into a jeb_ sheep, you’re getting white wool. It’s purely a visual flex. You can't craft a rainbow bed or a rainbow carpet. Minecraft’s engine doesn't handle "multi-color" items in the inventory like that. It’s a bummer, I know.
Why Does This Even Exist?
This is a tribute to Jens Bergensten, or "jeb," the Lead Creative Designer of Minecraft. He took over from Notch years ago. The developers love adding these little "nametag" secrets. It’s the same logic as naming a mob "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" to flip them upside down, or naming a rabbit "Toast" to give it a specific black-and-white fur pattern in memory of a player's lost pet.
The jeb_ sheep is the most famous because it’s the most active. It’s constantly moving, constantly changing. It’s basically a living disco ball.
The Technical Weirdness of the jeb_ Sheep
Let’s get into the weeds for a second because Minecraft’s code is actually kinda funny when it comes to these sheep. The color change is what we call "client-side rendering." The server knows it's a jeb_ sheep, but your computer is the one doing the heavy lifting of cycling the colors.
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- Breeding: If you breed two rainbow sheep, they don't make a rainbow baby. The baby will inherit the "true" color of one of the parents.
- Dyeing: You can still dye a rainbow sheep. If you use red dye on a jeb_ sheep, its "true" color becomes red. It will still look like it's cycling through the rainbow, but if you shear it, you'll get red wool.
- Evokers: This is a weird one. In the Java Edition, if an Evoker isn't in combat and sees a blue sheep, it will occasionally cast a spell to turn it red while making a "Wololo" sound—a reference to Age of Empires. If that blue sheep is a jeb_ sheep, it still turns the "base" color to red.
Common Mistakes and Troubleshooting
If your sheep isn't changing colors, check your spelling. I've seen people type "Jeb_" with a capital letter. Doesn't work. I've seen people type "jeb" without the underscore. Doesn't work. The game is looking for a specific string of text.
Also, make sure you're actually using the name tag on the sheep and not just hitting it. If you’re playing on a crowded multiplayer server, some plugins might disable custom entity names to save on lag, but that’s pretty rare these days. In 99% of cases, it’s just a typo on the anvil.
Another thing: if the sheep dies, the name tag is gone. It doesn't drop the renamed tag back. You have to go find or buy another one. This makes rainbow sheep a bit of a commodity if you’re playing on a hardcore world or a survival server where resources are tight. Protect your disco sheep. Build a fence. Keep the wolves away.
Practical Steps to Build a Rainbow Farm
Don't just stop at one. If you want a truly chaotic-looking base, you need a herd.
- Mass-produce name tags. Fish during the night or set up a trading hall with Librarians. You’re going to need a lot of them.
- Automate your XP. A simple mob grinder using a dark room and some water channels will give you the levels you need to rename dozens of tags without breaking a sweat.
- Lead them home. Use wheat to lure a group of sheep into a glass enclosure. If you put them behind tinted glass, it looks like a high-end art installation.
- Name them all at once. You can actually stack name tags in the anvil, rename the whole stack to "jeb_", and then just run through your sheep pen right-clicking like crazy.
Once you have about twenty of these things in a small space, the color cycling starts to overlap. It creates this undulating wave of color that is actually pretty cool to look at from a distance. Just watch your frame rate. Too many entities in one spot can make your game chug, especially if you’re playing on a phone or an older console.
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The rainbow sheep is a tiny part of Minecraft, but it represents the weird, playful spirit the game has had for over a decade. It’s a reminder that not everything has to be about efficiency or "beating" the game. Sometimes, you just want a sheep that looks like a neon sign.
To get started, find an anvil and make sure you have at least 1 level of experience. Double-check your spelling—jeb_—and find the nearest sheep. Once you see that first color shift, you'll realize why people have been doing this for over ten years. It’s a simple, perfect little Easter egg that makes your world feel just a bit more magical.