Could anyone tell me the average carcass weight of a heb ewe that is a couple of years old,i am not thinking of slaughter just yet,but might do when i reach my ideal flock number.
Secondly just had 6 ewes sheared 3 of which had not been shorn for 2 years it came off like a quilt,is there a market for hebridean fleece.Or do any member/s fancy making me some jumpers,socks etc out of it at my cost if its not too expensive.
Any suggestions please.
Fleeces which come off in one piece have felted - you can use them to cover the compost heap or put in under stones to fill in potholes, but they cannot be spun - silk purses and sows ears
The problem is that once the fibres have felted together they can't be pulled apart again.
To produce good quality fleeces for spinning or other craft work requires some input from you and you must be selective about which ones you offer for sale. The problem with felting on the animal is not exclusive to Hebs but they do have a tendency to do it, especially when the weather is hot then there is heavy rain. It's good to get felted fleece off the sheep as soon as possible as they pull tighter and tighter so must be quite uncomfortable. We used to have a Jacob called Trixie whose fleece felted (cotted) nearly every year before we could shear her. She would stand near my OH when he was shearing others and demand to be next in line to get the wretched fleece off
Heb fleece does make wonderful cosy socks, and a well chosen fleece can make a good hard-wearing jumper too - the wool is unusually lightweight but robust, however you wouldn't want to wear it as a vest
Have a look here for a bit more about Heb fleece:
http://www.scothebs.co.uk/wool-and-fleece.html
Topic: hebridean sheep questions (Read 12529 times)
