[wildandwooly]

Hi all

Anyone available to give me a hand with shearing my small flock of Shetland sheep? I have 6. 2 have almost completely naturally roo'd apart from round the neck which I'm probably ok with doing myself but the other 4 need a complete shear. I have crutched them all. I've sadly just missed getting on a course and seems nothing else available in the near future 

We're on the borders of County Durham/ Cumbria/Northumberland. 

[vfr400boy]

I just watched loads of YouTube vids and had a go my self did it very slowly,  they was not the tidiest but I got the wool off

[wildandwooly]

Yes I think I'm going to have to have a go 
It'll be like a bad Covid home hair cut for them all 

[Fleecewife]

The positioning of the sheep as you shear is important.  It's designed to keep the skin taut to avoid cutting it. The order and pattern are different if you are clipping with machine shears, or hand shearing with blades, so remember to watch the relevant you tube clips. We use blades, which are so nice and quiet and you can shear your sheep out in their pasture or under cover as you choose.  With clippers you need a power source.
 Never pull on the wool, only on the skin, as pulling the wool causes the skin to tent and you can remove a large piece of skin if you cut at that point.  I'm never sure how people manage not to cut their sheep when they shear them standing up. Cover the teats, and penis in a male, with one hand as you clip the belly.
The pattern of shearing and moving round the sheep is like a ballet and it takes ages to learn it but once you have then you are free of the annual race to find a shearer who can come at the right time and won't charge the earth. If you are using the fleece yourself, or throwing it out, it really doesn't matter whether or not you get it off in one piece or in lots of little bits. Once you get good, you can enter some fleeces at your local show.  Good luck 

[wildandwooly]

Thanks Fleecewife 

[SallyintNorth]

I'm never sure how people manage not to cut their sheep when they shear them standing up.

The skin is naturally taut with them stood up, thanks to anatomy and gravity!  lol.  Whereas when we start sitting them down and folding them up, we create folds and wrinkles that we then need to straighten out. 

[wildandwooly]

I've crutched mine standing up but then you would. Hard to crutch with them sitting on their bums 

[twizzel]

I've crutched mine standing up but then you would. Hard to crutch with them sitting on their bums 

It’s relatively easy to crutch them with them turned over. The danger of crutching with them stood up is catching the tendon/ligament that runs down the back of the leg- then you’re in big trouble. That said we crutch pre lambing with the ewes stood up, but take our time with them.

[wildandwooly]

Agree you have to be careful definitely and take your time but we find it easier to crutch them standing up. No accidents
I'll prob be ok hand clipping them if I take my time as I've watched a lot of videos but I was just thinking it would be much better to get myself on a proper course first which sadly hasn't been possible this year. The second option was to get them done by someone else this year hence the ask but get myself booked onto a course before next year after all the Covid restrictions 

[Fleecewife]

I tried to get onto a hand shearing course some years ago with the BWMB. There was only one run in Scotland and that was cancelled at the last minute.  Mr F went on one locally for machine shearers. They sheared loads of sheep and were then told to come back for part two of the course when they'd shorn I think it was 300 or 3,000 sheep.  At the time we had about 80, but it was still going to take a while, so he never did part 2 and never went on a hand shearing course at all.  We both wanted to, but the courses were hard to find.
I think some smallholding shearing courses may be available outside the pandemic.
To my mind, just to do your shearing yourself if you possibly can has to be so much better in many ways than getting someone in to do it for you.  It somehow  goes hand in hand with the '70s idea of self sufficiency, or at least with the notion that smallholders are handy, self reliant and do their own work.
One year Mr F sheared all our sheep with one arm in a sling due to a fractured collarbone - I held the sheep, he sheared them.  It took a while but we did it 

[wildandwooly]

It's better to do things yourselves if you can. It's what smallholding is about I agree. And enjoyable but all a steep learning curve in my opinion
We've had to do a load of fencing this year as had to replace a huge amount which had been left for up to 20 years and nearly all rotten posts    It's taken us months and a lot of sweat and tears and hard graft but we've done a good job we think, with a bit of extra help from a friend, and it's very satisfying now to look at it and be proud of what we've achieved. And so many new skills learnt 
So....next the shearing challenge 

[SallyintNorth]

I really enjoy shearing our sheep.  It takes me ages to do each one, but I like the time up close with them, learning about how the fleece grows on different sheep and differently across their bodies, and changes according to external factors.  Because I spin, I also enjoy getting a preview of the fleeces I am going to be using this year, and I can skirt as I shear so that the spinning fleece sacks contain only clean, spinnable fleece.

Two of my 5 first timers stopped with me for a cuddle after they'd been sheared and I'd released them from the headstock.  I wasn't surprised with the part-Icelandic one but the Zwartbles x Shetland had been quite standoffish up until then, and had been a bit fidgety as I sheared her too, so it surprised me she wanted a cuddle afterwards.  Very nice though

[wildandwooly]

Thats lovely 
Sheep can be annoying sometimes but mostly are wonderful to keep. I'm really enjoying having them and they're such characters, every one 
Someone said a while ago on this forum they can be addictive and I can see why now