The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: mebnandtrn on May 13, 2014, 11:19:20 am
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Having failed to find a shearer (see our other post) we are considering plan B - doing it ourselves! Is this utter madness / likely to be the death of our sheep / a feasible plan? There are only 5 of them to do, but obviously we don't want to traumatise them (or us!). Advice on hand shears would also be greatly appreciated. The biggest worry is cutting them - our midwife a few years ago told us about cutting a sheep so badly she had to do emergency stitches save its life - that story has stayed with us as a real fear! Many thanks.
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I've used shearer's in the past but last year my sheep were loosing their fleeces before he could make it so I decided to do mine myself. It was quite hard work with some and I found the darker colours harder even in bright daylight but it is possible.
I know I didn't do it in a conventional way - as they had lost most around their neck from the sides I clipped away - small clips and rolled the fleece towards the back - seemed to work.
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Oh, it's incredibly hard - you need to pay someone like me to come and do it... :innocent:
Really, no it's not that bad.
Guide for untrained shearing in desperation: The tricky bit is controlling the sheep, which you need to do using your feet, legs, knees, body, maintaining firm contact and balance: pressure from 2 sides simultaneously helps. If they are still, you can shear at your leisure, but don't expect them to stay still for long. Holding them will tire you out and frustrate you. Controlling their head helps a lot (keep it off the ground if possible), and if you are holding a leg then keep it close to their body. A second pair of hands will make life easier. Don't try to tether like you do with alpacas.
In terms of actually cutting into the fleece, you need to find 'corners' or entry points where you can see skin - brisket up or down, front of rear leg into the flank, neck, face. Don't pull the wool up to see where you are cutting - that's when you stretch the skin and cut into it. Work from these points outwards - flip over once you have passed the spine.
Be confident, but respect your ignorance if you are unsure of the anatomy beneath the fleece. Areas to take plenty of time are around pizzles, teats, bums, eyes, ears, tail. If there are bad dags, consider having a pair of scissors to hand.
I'd say give hand shears a go - you won't be that much slower first time round, and they're cheaper by lots.
Don't worry if they look scruffy - go over them again, or just wait for it to grow out!
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I haven't shorn all that many sheep myself (that's what Mr Fleecewife is for :D) but it wasn't so very difficult, given that I had the 'easy' ones, and surprisingly I didn't take much longer than he did, or to put it another way, I was nearly as quick :trophy:
What I did notice though was that the tamest sheep were the squirmiest, whereas the wilder ones seemed to give in totally and just let me get on with it. Not what I'd expected.
There must be you-tube clips to watch, in fact doesn't singing shearer have one out there? Watch many times before you have a go, then just go for it. Also choose proper sized shears, don't try shearing with daggers, but choose a pair with a softer 'spring' if your hands are smaller or weaker than a roughytoughy chap who shears thousands - like smallflockshearing maybe? I'm making the assumption that sfs is male but apologies if not :o
Brucklay, I love the pic of you unpeeling your sheep 8) ;D
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i was going to suggest that on the other thread but then thought it was a bit presumptious. handshears are about £20 and it is very easy if you are confident and careful, though obviously you wont be very quick at it. but if you only have a few i wouldnt bother hiring someone.
once they are on their backs, they tend to sit still.
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Go for it, you will get it off somehow! I am a "self taught" shearer (and all that implies!) so bloody useless at it but it comes off, I don't cut many but swearing and back pain are not optional. If I can I will get someone to do it for Me this year.
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Have superglue and blue spray to hand for emergency battlefield suturing.
It works!
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Its not very hard, I am not very big or strong but I manage :)
I have electric clippers but actually can do a neat job with the hand clippers
This is one of mine done with my hand blades :) and she still has 4 legs!
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0044_zpsceb80ee4.jpg)
The best bet is to watch loads of youtube videos :D I did this to remind myself before shearing
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:thumbsup: Lady grey I'm curious to know if you sheared her seated or standing?
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Me or her seated or standing? :eyelashes:
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either or :)
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At the start of the day I was standing and the sheep were seated on there bums :)
end of the day I was getting half way through the sheep and then ending up sat on the floor/sheep with the sheep on my lap/underneath me :eyelashes:
Thats why I prefer smaller stockier ewes :thumbsup:
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thanks very nice job I find using hand shears on sheep that are seated much harder hence my question. I am considering going over to hand shears but I do tend to sit on the floor with the sheep seated.
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Hmm so you find it easier with the sheep standing up??
I tried that but I find as the sheep's skin isnt stretched taught when she is just stood up I am more likely to cut her...
I sit the ewe on her bottom and start at her brisket, up to her head, do the whole neck, down her shoulder and across whilst bending her and keeping everything taught.
I then change her position to be sat still but bent the other way, face facing her tail end, and push my fist into her upper leg to extend her leg fully and stretch the skin, then do back leg and up, over her thigh, do far over the spine as I can and up across her ribs, then thats 75% of her done, I then tuck her head between my legs whilst she is sat facing me with my feet tucked under her feet so they dont touch the ground, then I can reach t'other side and start from her shoulder and go all the way down to finish.
Some have wooly bellies, I do these after doing back legs or roo them off, they roo off fine in the shetlands and I even roo off some bellies in other breeds, I also like to roo around ears
This is another ewe I did, a big texel mule, she was hard as she had loads of fleece and weighs much more than I do!
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0002_zps61c45076.jpg)
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Gosh you are good lady Gray!! Mine look a lot worse than that! But no cuts and as long as you both survive.... ;D Where are you, maybe someone here can come and show you/ help?
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Gosh you are good lady Gray!! Mine look a lot worse than that! But no cuts and as long as you both survive.... ;D Where are you, maybe someone here can come and show you/ help?
We are just south of Warrington, Cheshire. M6 J20 sort of area. Anyone able to come and point us in the right direction would be gratefully received with cake etc!!!
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I've clipped plenty of horses in my time and quietly consider myself quite good at it. I do a lovely neat job and I even clipped out my mental horse. So I thought, I know how to handle a pair of clippers, I'll give it a go. I went out and bought a good set of electric shears for the sheep (didn't want to keep swapping the heads over on my horse set), and made sure I had sharp spare blades, the lot.
But nope. Can't do it. Catching the sheep and getting them on their backs/sides isn't the problem (as a novice definitely an extra pair of hands needed though) for me it's because I find the skin beneath the fleece 'soft and floppy' (sorry, best description I can think of right now), it is incredibly easy to nick the skin. And it doesn't half give you backache.
Maybe if I hadn't the experience of doing horses I wouldn't have the comparison and find it so daunting. So I call in the sheep shearer every year.The guy that shears our flock has the proper kit, a harness to counter-balance his weight and a good back protector.
And I have a cracking pair of expensive shears as an ornament.
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And I have a cracking pair of expensive shears as an ornament.
same here but after nearly cutting my fingers off with them, i prefer the hand shears. my clippers are so loud too.
i kept mine as i in theory i can change the blade and trim the cattles belly before slaughter.
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How hard is shearing? ........ bl**dy impossible!! Yep i am the same, can clip any horse, but try a sheep, even with hand shears, and all common sense goes out the window!!! Nigh on impossible!!! :-[
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I found a few videos on youtube and tried a few shetlands and rare breeds last year.
I managed to do a few but I had a back problem last year so I never stuck with it.
Although I will get a shearer in again this year I will try and learn how to do this on some of the smaller sheep.
Its worth giving it a try.
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Something to support your back is definitely worth getting. Those bouncy harnesses look great but wouldn't do for us as we don't bring the whole flock in to shear at once, but catch them where we can and do them right there in the paddock.
Sheep skin is very soft, which is why the set pattern of moving the animal around as you go was developed. It causes the skin to be taut all the time, no matter which bit you are doing. For example, by bending the sheep over one way, the skin is stretched over a convex curve along the flanks, and by holding the head bent in a certain way the neck (and the major blood vessels) are far less vulnerable. One of the bits which I worry about is the wing of skin under the arms.
With hand shears, I find I am less likely to cut the animal than with electric shears, because you are cutting through the rise with hand shears, so they are not so close to the sheep's body. For invisible bits such as 'dividing the neck' guide the shears through by meeting the sharp tip with your fingers from the other side - you will not snip yourself nearly as readily as you would snip the sheep :sheep:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62EmEsacEY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62EmEsacEY)
I watched this clip.
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a lovely looking sheep, any idea of the breed?
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Something to support your back is definitely worth getting. [...]
Sheep skin is very soft, which is why the set pattern of moving the animal around as you go was developed. It causes the skin to be taut all the time, no matter which bit you are doing.
I did mine for the first time last year and ached all over, especially the top back of legs.
Getting to know a pattern takes a little while and if not sure it might be worth doing a dummy run. That way you can check pens are set up right, they get used to going in them and being handled there, you can work out if there's anything you haven't thought of (a board to stand on, keeping cables to motor in handpiece machines tidy, where you're going to put car/generator, places to hang things, etc) and it gets you limbered up. For a more accurate simulation or if you don't have a machine yet, try it with a brush instead and use it as an opportuntiy to clean debris off their fleece and trim their backsides (although the little beggars will probably run through a few gorse bushes straight after...) I found the smaller younger ones more awkward as they tied to squirm more and had tos spend more time bent further.
it's well worth doing though. You get a real good look all over them, and the variety of wool is interesting. Mine were a litle apprehensive about me for a day or so after, but longer term seemed to be slightly tamer.
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Foe shearing a few of your own the simplest way is to invest in a halter so you can tie the sheep by the head to a fence post. Start by splitting the fleece by shearing all the way down the sheeps back bone while it is standing and then starting at the top and working down each side in turn. If the belly needs clipped then you might find it easier to turn the sheep onto its tail like you would to trim its feet so you can easily clip any belly wool. This is a slower way to shear and it means that the fleece comes off in two parts but it is easier on both you and the sheep and it allows you to see the skin all times making cuts less likely.
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I can also give a smart clip to a horse but leave the sheep shearing to Philip the expert. He makes a great job of it, is quick and with no stress to the sheep. Clipping a horse can be hard work but sheep shearing is 10 x worse. I will stick to the horses.
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I did my 5 GFDs last week end for the first time the shearer decided he didnt want to do it this year. As someone already said, its technique, controller the sheep and the patern in which you proceed. I found the hardest part was getting started into the fleece. At one point my wife was horrified by the amount of blood on one ewe, I sheared in a 6*6 pen so I could let the ewe go when I was tired, it was hot last weekend! The ewe was at one end panting and I was at the other panting alas the blood was all mine clipped the ends of two fingers. In the end the sheep look OK but I dont think the fleeces will be worth much.
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Shame you can't get someone to demo for you but as you can't my best tips would be;
Wait until the fleece is coming away really well at the neck and tail because if you try and shear too early it will be really hard to do, especially clearing the belly wool.
Keep the hand shears nice and flat to the body and NEVER pull on the fleece, it lifts the skin and you will nick the sheep.
Watch some of those videos to familiarise yourself with the working sequence and get you confident.
Don't aim to do more than one a day at first, be nice to your back until you get the knack.