The Shepherd and His 17 Sheep

Old Romanian Riddle

The story:
Once upon a time, there was an old shepherd...

....Oops! Sorry for the coach!

So, there was an old shepherd who had 17 sheep in his herd...

...and three sons.

He decided to leave the sheep to his sons as an inheritance as follows :

 the oldest son was to inherit half of the sheep,

1/3

the second a third of them

1/9

and the youngest son the ninth part.

After he died, his sons managed to fulfil this task. Without, of course, hurting the sheep.

Question
How did they split the herd