The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Meh! on May 31, 2014, 12:49:16 pm
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Hi, I'm now four years down the line of having pat sheep (now 4) and intend to always have the wooly friends. I stress every year about getting the sheared and have been lucky that the farmer on who's land I keep them has volunteered to shear them for me. However I HATE not being able to do things myself ( and he has just had a heart attack) I bought a cheap pair of clippers last year for £100 isn and he laughed at my attemptsattempts and ended up doing them for me again. I've just had the decades sharpened (Shear Ease - brilliant postal service) and really want to have a go again this year. Farmer told me last year I had blunted them right away because the blade was up against the guard. I had followed the instructions, fit blade, tighten, tensioner back 1/4 turn.. What can I be doing wrong? How hard can it be to use clippers. First year I tried to use a pair of the red hand blades and they didn't cut at all even although new. I ended up spending hours with a pair of scissors. Luckily they are so tame they just stood there but ended up looking like balls of popcorn!!!!
Doesn't help that I can't tip them, does it really matter how they are done as long as they get their coats of and are cool??
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Nope. Try to cut more wool than skin and just halter them up, do them standing if its easier for you, chances are the wool is worth very little so - just chew it off somehow!
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If you get the chance, do one of the shearing courses the wool board run.
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Cut along the back and then you can shear / scissor off each side with the sheep standing it makes it much easier to see what you are cutting and follow the outline of the sheeps body. The fleece doesn't come off in one piece but it comes off :D
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Excuse basic suggestions:
Are the pins on the claws in the uppermost cutter holes, nearer the tips?
Have you used oil, and of the right viscosity?
Are the cutter tips set back a few mm from the flat tip of the comb?
Is the comb the right way round - side with groove against cutter?
Have comb and cutter been properly ground, recently?
Do you expect to shear more than one sheep in an hour?
If the sheep does not like being tied up, leave it for a few hours and it may get over itself.
Go easy on yourself -don't expect too much!
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... No, it doesn't matter how it is done, as long as it comes off, they don't bleed too much and you don't end up in hospital, district or psychiatric...
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Meh,
There was a picture on here very recently, sorry can't remember who posted, but she was shearing her sheep standing and was 'peeling' the fleece off with the shears, like a banana skin.
It was a bit unconventional but seemed to be working well.
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Get some shedding sheep---end of problems---no shearing, no dagging & vastly reduced flystrike risk
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We used to get a shearer to come and shear our sheep but when he gave up we couldn't find anyone to do our few for a decent price so I have started shearing myself. I have ME which is very painful and tiring but this year still managed to shear a couple of ewes in one 'sitting' by shearing them standing up.
I start with the neck then once that is out of the way I stand with the head between my knees and shear along the spine and then down either side. On the larder sheep I get my dad to take my place at the head end and I can sit on the floor and reach the backside and underbelly.
As long as the fleece comes off, who cares how its done; as long as the sheep is not distressed and you don't kill yourself!
P.S What does everyone do with their fleeces?
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I have ME which is very painful and tiring :excited:
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We used to get a shearer to come and shear our sheep but when he gave up we couldn't find anyone to do our few for a decent price so I have started shearing myself. I have ME which is very painful and tiring but this year still managed to shear a couple of ewes in one 'sitting' by shearing them standing up.
I start with the neck then once that is out of the way I stand with the head between my knees and shear along the spine and then down either side. On the larder sheep I get my dad to take my place at the head end and I can sit on the floor and reach the backside and underbelly.
As long as the fleece comes off, who cares how its done; as long as the sheep is not distressed and you don't kill yourself!
Unless you have something special fleece-wise, get rid of all the mucky bits, put in an old pillowcase and freeze for a week or so to kill off any creepy crawlers, then you can use it for loft or other insulation. :thumbsup:
P.S What does everyone do with their fleeces?
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I had two to do this year and used similar clippers to yours I think.... As they are halter trained, I too did them mostly standing up, apart from their tummies. When I had got the majority of the wool off, I went over them again later in the day to tidy them up and they looked really quite good. It is really useful with small numbers of sheep to have them halter trained.
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I use a big business of shearers which shear all over the Uk and , I think, Europe too. The problem is there is three of them and they are used to shearing lots of sheep. :(
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Is the collective noun for shearers a "business" the same as for ferrets??
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I don't know, maybe. I would definately say for their business, yes. Its a big business for them. :sunshine:
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No, the collective noun is a 'rivalry' of shearers... :P
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Fed up withwaiting for my shearer to turn up, I wondered about doing my few myself. But terrified of cutting the skin with my ace Jakoti shears, I thought I might try to halter them up and use a plasterer's scarifying comb to push into the fleece parallel to the skin and then cut above it. The tines of the comb would protect the skin beneath. I have no idea if this would work or what the result would look like, but I am tempted!
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That sounds a bit like hairdressers do, well not with a plasterers comb you understand, but they often comb the hair and cut above the comb.
Sounds like it will work to me.
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it is because shearing is such a trial I opted for a shedding breed but I still have one shetland left: Elfie, who's very tame and seems to object to being flipped worse than any other sheep I've had so usually gets done on her feet.
The only advice I can give for diy shearing it to pull slightly on the skin of the sheep to keep the skin slightly taut where you are shearing so it doesn't wrinkle into the shears - seems to help the shears cut through the wool too. If you watch youtube vids of sheepshearing, they seem to 'bend' the sheep in such a way as to keep the skin taut where they are shearing - but this requires more skill in handling sheep than I have.
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Before we got the shearers out, we used to shear all of our 60 or 80 sheep by hand, it took a long time. By the way why not buy a shearing belt, if you are hand shearing, it is supposed to protect your back. Also when you hand shear a sheep it is good to keep with the rise of the wool. Here is a video showing you how to hand shear a sheep. how to blade shear a sheep (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ga0xb3O4DY#)
Hope this helps :wave:
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Slimjim, pm me if you give up on your shearer and get desperate. I'm in Devon. Oops, I don't mean to suggest that you would have to be desperate to call me of all people...
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Hello
I have also been thinking of shearing myself, thought about it last year and totally chickened out, luckily got a really good shearer who i can use again.However i still quite fancy having a go, especially as i only have two sheep it seems crazy not doing them myself!They are halter trained and i can't tip so i always do everything with them standing but i'm a bit worried about how i'm going to manage to do their bellies like this?Also i'll only be using hand shears, are some better than others?
Thanks :)
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Jakoti are good
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BH recently bought some Jakoti self-sharpening shears and says they are lethal. Far far too sharp, way too easy to cut the sheep. He's just been clipping sheep for 50 years...
Think we'll be sticking with the traditional Burgen and Ball (http://www.burgonandball.com/shop/scripts/prodList.asp?idcategory=80)
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As long as the fleece comes off, who cares how its done; as long as the sheep is not distressed and you don't kill yourself!
P.S What does everyone do with their fleeces?
There are three different reasons behind removing fleece. One is to get it off as quickly as possible, not caring how either the sheep or the fleece looks as long as the job's done.
The second is for showing the sheep, when it doesn't matter what the removed fleece looks like, as long as the animal is smart.
The third is if the fleece is the prime objective, and it doesn't matter what the sheep looks like, or how quick you are.
Each one of these reasons behind shearing is as valid as the next. We get our fleeces off to use them for hand spinning, but we also occasionally show the sheep, so in fact Mr Fleecewife takes extra care when shearing to watch both the sheep and the fleece. We have only been shearing a small flock for 18 years, but Mr F doesn't take much longer then someone who shears many.
We use Burgon and Ball too, like Mr Sallyintnorth, the one with the single bend for a spring so it's light on the hand. Mine are slightly shorter in the blade than Mr F's but not as small as daggers.
For those of you scared of cutting your sheep, it really isn't likely to happen if you take your time, and feel your way through the fleece, cutting through the rise -this means you're well above the skin.
If you possibly can, learn to tip your sheep, and teach yourself from YouTube clips the order of shearing and turning your sheep. It makes the whole process so much easier, as you always have your sheep in the best position for stopping it from jumping up and running away, and the skin is always kept taught so you don't cut it. Shearing with the sheep standing is the way which terrifies me as you must sometimes cut on the inside of a curve that way, which increases your chance of cutting the sheep. I appreciate it's difficult for some to tip a sheep, and I couldn't do a big one. Teensy ones I can get on their bums by lifting them in a very unconventional manner and dumping them unceremoniously on their bums.
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We send ours to the British wool something or other, I can't remember. Anyway they sell them onto factories who make stuff with them. Hope this helps.
I think it could be called the British wool association. However to get a better price pack the black wool separate from the white.
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Thank you so much for all of your responses. I managed to find a local friendly farmer who offered to do them for me. :relief: Very kind and wouldn't take payment so a bottle of whiskey winging its way to him as I type. :thumbsup: he was great and explained the clippers to me. he was director at a local agricultural college so must have got his patience from teaching there, He was too cheery and sociable for your typical farmer! :farmer:
I liked the idea of using the wool for insulation. I need some for a small loft and had actually though of that!!
it would be nice if there was a wee gathering now and then in local area of forum members...
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it would be nice if there was a wee gathering now and then in local area of forum members...
Do what we did in Carmathenshire put out an invite on here ... just takes one person to get it started ..