The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Primitive Sheep => Topic started by: springbok on May 10, 2015, 10:02:42 am
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I have six Castlemilk Moorits ewes who have started moulting. I was thinking of getting a shearer in but was reading that they can be plucked. Does anyone know how on earth one goes about doing this??
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Grasp wool between thumb and forefinger and gently pull!
If it's ready to come off then it will. If it doesn't come off easily, then try another area and take off what does come off without having to use undue force.
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Some years my Badger Face will shed most of their wool - it breaks off a centimetre or so above the skin surface. They're generally left with a rather odd looking "bustle" around their rear end which the shearer removes and I suppose we could pluck off. It seems to be triggered by a spell of mild weather early in the year, like the one we had in March.
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Are Castlemilks a roo'ing breed? Roo'ing is the correct term - plucking sounds rather painful :o
I thought the main roo'ers were Shetland and Soay, occasionally Hebs.
They are ready to roo when you can clearly see the 'rise' about an inch above the skin - a clear horizontal line in the fleece with the new-grown wool coming through from the skin, the old on top. The idea is to separate the fibres at that point, not to pull all the fleece off to skin. It's the same line you would hand shear through.
The first time a sheep is roo'd it will likely hate it, but they do get used to it.
You need to tie your sheep to something, either with a halter or in a headstock (the latter if they're jumpy).
Working in the hot sun is best, as the new and old fibres will slide easily over each other.
Sit on a low stool (milking stool ideal) and start at the neck, where the wool tends to come away first. Take a small lock of fleece in one hand, brace the skin with the other. Pull and wriggle the lock - if it comes away easily, it's ready, if not, leave it another week. If only bare skin is left, you're too early.
Take your time, as rushing will hurt the animal.
If you intend to use or sell the fleece for spinning, you can sort as you go - one container for dags and skirtings, another for useable, clean tufts of fibre.
Gradually work your way down one side. Usually the britch will be ready a couple of weeks after the rest, as Marches Farmer says, so you're left with pantaloons for those couple of weeks.
If you and the sheep are restless, do one side one day and the other the next. Otherwise, retie when you've done as much on one side as possible.
There is a terrible American You Tube clip, supposedly showing how to roo. Please please don't do it that way - she's not gentle.
Sometimes with Soay you can 'unpeel' the fleece and remove it in one go - it's a bit like skinning a dead animal, but obviously in this case the animal is living.
Equally, once you get to the same stage as when the sheep is ready to roo, it is also ready to hand shear. You can do this using all the proper shearing positions, but I know many people who do them standing up, even one person who uses dressmaking scissors. You need to be extra careful not to nick skin folds, but it's perfectly possible, especially when you don't have enough sheep to warrant waiting for a shearer.
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Thanks - yes roo'ing sounds much nicer :)
I'd heard that castle milks don't need to be sheared and certainly our girls are looking like they're moulting. The wool is lifting up as described and coming away on its own. Ow particularly is left with some pantaloon styling going on.
Might have to look at tying them to do it - I don't think they'll tolerate me fussing without it.
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You forgot to mention the Boreray Fleecewife ! One of my tups is sporting a very nice pair of pantaloons :sheep:
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I think there is a tendancy to shear no matter what having left mine to roo ( most do but not all) I find their fleeces are much better the following year than if they have been shorn. Not to mention much nicer to spin!
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You forgot to mention the Boreray Fleecewife ! One of my tups is sporting a very nice pair of pantaloons :sheep:
Oops, I forgot about them. There are probably others too.
The pantaloons are brilliant :roflanim:
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I think might try the more natural approach this year then. I'd love to try spinning but have no idea where to start.
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You might get some help in the crafts section - we love new spinners :spin:.
If you're the sort of person who likes to learn in company, then it can be very satisfying to join your local Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. Look online for your nearest group.
They might also be able to point you in the direction of someone who will teach you.
There are also many beginners courses around the place - obviously you have to pay.
For me, I learned way back before the Internet made information access so quick, so I watched my ancient aunt a couple of times, got the sheep, bought the Ashford Book of Spinning, bought a wheel and got going.
Now though you can watch endless you tube clips on all aspects of spinning and associated crafts. Spend a few hours looking through and see if it looks appealing. It's much easier to see it done than to try to work it out from the written word :thumbsup:
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You might get some help in the crafts section - we love new spinners :spin:.
If you're the sort of person who likes to learn in company, then it can be very satisfying to join your local Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. Look online for your nearest group.
They might also be able to point you in the direction of someone who will teach you.
There are also many beginners courses around the place - obviously you have to pay.
For me, I learned way back before the Internet made information access so quick, so I watched my ancient aunt a couple of times, got the sheep, bought the Ashford Book of Spinning, bought a wheel and got going.
Now though you can watch endless you tube clips on all aspects of spinning and associated crafts. Spend a few hours looking through and see if it looks appealing. It's much easier to see it done than to try to work it out from the written word :thumbsup:
I joined my local guild, got lent a guild wheel and shown how to spin with it all at the first meeting. I bought some fibre off the sales table and have not looked back.
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Oh that definitely sounds like fun :D
I've watched spinning videos before and it looks wonderfully therapeutic. I think it's just the wool preparation which puts me off - is it horribly smelly?
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Smelly? No, not unless you're dealing with the fleece off a particularly old and rancid tup ;D But those go on the bonfire here.
I used to spin 'in the grease' when I first started, but I found my wheel started to clog up with dirty grease, so now I wash my fleece, in small amounts at a time, before beginning the prep. Then I rub a little baby oil or similar over my hands before I work with the fleece.
If you accept that you spend longer prepping fleece from its raw state to where it can be spun, than you do on the actual spinning, you won't feel you're wasting time. The success of your spinning depends on good fleece prep, so it's worth taking your time over. You'll soon learn to love the smell of clean fleece. I wash mine in a lavender scented wool wash which makes it very cuddleable :hugsheep:
Some of the stages for you to look up on You Tube include washing, carding, combing, making rolags, dyeing fibre (if you want to). Often watching one clip will lead you on to the next process.
As well as wheel spinning, there is of course spindle spinning. Some learners start with the spindle, and this gives you all the information you need about the process of spinning. A wheel, with all its complicated looking bits, treadle, strings, springs and fishing line, is just a way of storing what you've spun, and speeding up the spinning a bit. I love using a spindle, my favourites being the Turkish spindle and a top whorl spindle. You can take your spindle with you anywhere and spin as you stand waiting for the bus, or anywhere, even walking. Abbey Franquemont's book 'Respect the Spindle' is wonderful and will teach you all you know. A good spindle will cost as little as a few pounds, then when you get hooked you can join the crowds of spinners who have a wonderful collection of beautifully crafted spindles of all weights, sizes, designs and woods and cost well under £50. A new wheel costs several hundred, so a spindle is a lovely idea to get started and see if you like the craft. :spin: :spin: :spin:
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I haven't been able to roo as I'm in the middle of lambing so Alvin (one of last year's lambs) is sporting a lovely gorse assisted set of pantaloons
(http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h339/whitbylast/e8a4f02e-91c8-4613-af21-51417bca57b8_zpsbcxct9ew.jpg)
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This one chose to keep the feather boa rather than the pantaloons. And her fleece was really pretty too -- I am for sure going to try rooing her early next year. Her twin sister beside her hasn't shed at all!
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If you tried to roo her sister you may find that although it doesn't self shed the fleece will lift with a little gentle persuasion. Love the feather boa!
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Great pics, both :thumbsup: Total fashion martyrs... I particularly love Alvin's puff sleeves ;D
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In my limited experience, some castlemilks will roo some years. I think I may be able to do a Manx or two this year too ;)
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:excited:
going to give this a go!! My Boerary Tup and wether are looking like they have started moulting. Will see if I can get them in my milking stand with some feed and roo away :fc:
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PLUCKING SHEEP! :rant:
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well I gave it a go :thumbsup:
was actually ok, fleece came off without any hard pulling, just gently teasing holding the skin taught. The only bit where it wasn't keen to come off was from the leg down to the hock so he has fluffy socks :innocent:
he did look a bit funny afterwards but he seems happy enough
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.....a lovely gorse assisted set of pantaloons
That's funny. Our Shetland tup is sporting GOOSE assisted pantaloons at the moment. He spends hours each day up against the fence so the geese can attack him through it. "Go on, peck me again. That's great! Lower, higher, ooooh yeah!" ;D
BTW, we roo'd our Manx Loaghtans last year very successfully. Once we'd caught them, the rest was really easy, and dare I say it, very therapeutic! :)
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The Ouessants here have started , roo'ed this little girl today. (http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd278/SperedBreizh/rooed%20black%20ouessant%20vsm.jpg)
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nice job :thumbsup:
my boy looks like a black bunny rabbit as I couldnt get too much of his tail so its still a bit bushy
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Don't they look lovely when they've been roo'ed :hugsheep: Still all woolly, without the horrible bare stripes the shearer leaves.
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Can one of you come and roo 130 for me next Saturday? :eyelashes:
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Can one of you come and roo 130 for me next Saturday? :eyelashes:
Certainly Me - at £50 an hour, 6 hours per sheep, that's ...um...er...well.... you can't afford me :roflanim:
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I work for beer :innocent:
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anyone get a problem with skin flakes in their fleece?
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Yes, but it's worse in shorn fleeces than roo'ed, as the rooing process seems to flick some out. It's really annoying when spinning. Do you also get it Kanisha? It must be more noticeable in dark fleeces than white.
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Yes Fleecewife. I don't worry too much about the shorn fleeces as they are generally going to be quite heavily processed before spinning. Unfortunately some of the roo'ed fleeces almost peel themselves off and when they do so it seems there is a layer of lanolin and skin flakes where presumably the sheep has almost sweated off the fleece. Not really sure how to get rid of it :-\
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If it's an otherwise good fleece, turn it cut side up, then shear off the horrid layer with hand shears. It's a bit awkward, so only worth it for a good fleece. There will still be some flakes in the rest of the fleece, but once it's been washed and is not so sticky, the flakes are more likely to shake out.
It also comes out better with combing than carding, or seems to for me. :sheep: :spin:
If you've roo'ed the alternative way, by pulling off tufts individually, which gives you a virtually no-prep product, then you can just snip the bottom off each staple as you go, but there won't be such a bad problem anyway.
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Thank you FW for your tips earlier in this thread. Ours were in various states of undress and decided to hand roo and 'trim' off fleece where necessary this year as a couple had areas remaining that they didn't drop naturally last year. We haltered them and tied to the fence and set to work with them in the standing position. Amazing how differently they roo'd. Some peeled off in more or less one piece while others needed trimming. We used my dressmaking scissors!!! ;D You were right .... it worked a treat. Even used your tip of a stool to sit on! Luckily we worked late and no local farmers around to see us giving our 'goats' a haircut. ;D
They were Heptavac'd, roo'd and Crovect'd ..... so hopefully sorted for a while. Possibly not ideal to do all this in one 'sitting' but they have been tricky to catch for some reason .... known only to themselves .... so seemed best to get the necessities sorted. Catching them involved a swinging gate with a string that was the length of the field. ::) Never mind ... they were outwitted in the end! Once released they ran, jumped and butted each over well into the night. ::)
Many thanks .... now to find time to wash all that fleece. ;D
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Thank you for your thanks, in the hills :) and I'm glad you got it all done so quickly :sheep: :sheep:
Good luck with the washing. I haven't started mine for this year, but then we've only shorn 4 sheep so far.
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What sheep do you have 'in the hills' ? We have to do the same to catch our Boreray. Do you use a race ? :sheep:
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Sorry Kelly58, just seen your post.
We have Soay and in general they have been fairly easy to catch. We use a hurdled area where we feed them regularly and call them in using a bucketful of food. Then usually just close the gate once their noses are in the trough. They are clever though and notice if you are carrying anything 'suspicious' or if they see two of us they know something is going on!
For some unknown reason, they haven't been playing ball lately and dashing out before we could even attempt to close the gate up. Possibly they are not interested in the food really as they are up to their necks in grass at the moment!
Once in the hurdled area we close up the area to make it smaller. We are thinking of making a better system soon which may include a make shift 'race' to make handling easier. Those horns can be a danger and one of the wethers that we have at the moment is a little 'highly strung' and could hurt himself or someone else by charging about as we bring the hurdles in to decrease the size of the holding area.
Boreray share a lot of genetics with the Soay so guessing they are similar in their behaviour. ::) ;D How do you handle things?
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we use the dog to get ours in to a corner then hurdle round them, once I start roo-ing they pretty much just give up and stand there til I'm done :thumbsup:
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If only ......
Mine chase the dog ::) ;D and don't think they'd ever dream of just standing there.
What kind are they Fiestyredhead? I want some!
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Boreray crosses and a couple of pure Boreray, if you want a laugh you can watch the video my OH put on of me roo-ing them the other day on my facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/marianne.simpson (https://www.facebook.com/marianne.simpson)