[Rosemary]

I think I'll ask for mine back - my lambs are going away end of the month, I hope.

Anything I have to do in advance? Do I need a licence or anything? And what do I do with them once I get them back?

[colliewoman]

If you email Nicki she will send you the DEFRA paperwork (yes you need paperwork to get your skins ) and instructions for salting them

[Dogwalker]

has anyone tried doing their own.

I'm in the process of getting the licence.  Very helpful AH lady doing by email to get it done in time for the sheep going on Friday.

[colliewoman]

oooooh tell me more 

[SallyintNorth]

I was put onto Devonia by a Cumbrian lady, who uses them all the time, and had previously heard of them as they had tanned the skins BH & I bought in Exmoor earlier this year - and they're lovely    So I think I'll press ahead with using them.  Will report back when I get the skins back next year sometime.

[woollyval]

Right...demand...which skins....
Well anything with colours, curls, tufts, back stripes etc

White skins need to be really special in order for them to be popular.

Breeds....Gotland, Wensleydale, GFD, Teeswater, D&C longwool etc....do not leave too late and certainly not after now otherwise the wool felts/tangles in the process! The thing to do if you need to keep them over winter is to shear early in may or before if poss and warm. Then grow until just lovely and curly and THEN slaughter. That way you get the best wool AND a skin. A long wool skin like this, esp if coloured is worth over £100 if good quality.
Coloured Ryeland is going to be much more desirable than white due to the way they tend to be mottled. Shetland such as the katmoget types with 2 colours are very popular. Jacob or anything else that has spots also very popular!

[Bionic]

Thanks Val 

[Mallows Flock]

I always used Fenland in the past... have had jacob and white commercial skins back which were VERY NICE. We had quite a wait as we gave them in late Nov and they were bombarded with customers wanting before Xmas...that was fine.
Devonia were longer but, as reiterated above, they had taken on bulk customers ex fenland so to be expected... however I was VERY unhappy with some of mine. Some were very uneven odd shapes, a fair few had holes in despite us using the exact same salting process we always use with great success and the courier cost to return them finished was twice what we paid to send them WET AND HEAVY.
I guess beggars can't be choosers and better than having them wasted but I was embarassed as a customer bought my skins and sent them off to be done by Devonia after he saw my Fenland ones and was pretty narked at the random non-sheepskin-rug-shaped rugs and a wierd staining on the hide/underside. Also they STANK really badly of chemical. REALLY badly.
It was commented on at the recent RBST show and sale that all the winning fleeces were Fenland fleeces.

[kaz]

has anyone tried doing their own.

I'm in the process of getting the licence.  Very helpful AH lady doing by email to get it done in time for the sheep going on Friday.

I'm sure Blinkers was going to have a go at doing her own skins a while back.  Might be worth a message if she doesn't see this thread.

[jaykay]

Now I was just thinking about this other day, looking at my tup lambs who need to go to the butchers in the next month or so. One of them is a very pretty grey katmoget and I'd like one of the black ones done too.


If they're taking that long, they're not going to be back by Christmas are they  (I'd hoped people might buy them for giving as pressies)

[Dogwalker]

When I dig out the kit I was given later I'll put up details though I've not tried it yet so can't say how good it will be.
There are various methods if you do a search.

I'd just like to say a public THANK YOU to Anne Steele at Caernarfon Animal Health.

I phoned at 4.45 on Monday to ask about the licence, she emailed the form, I printed it, fill it, scanned and emailed back.  By 5pm Tuesday I had the approved form emailed back to me.  24 hours for something 'official' I'm amazed after all the other hassles I've had over the last few weeks with government departments.  Just have to phone the abattoir later to tell them I've got the form and want the skins and horns back.

[jaykay]

How were your abbatoir about it - I haven't asked mine yet.

[sabrina]

Just had a senior moment, why would you want a sheep to have a tan 

[Dogwalker]

How were your abbatoir about it - I haven't asked mine yet.

Too big to want my business, the sheep are now booked in elsewhere who had no problem with the idea.
Why bother with smallholders when you deal with thousands of sheep.

[StephB]

We have just started the process of tanning our Sheepskins ourselves.

Can't afford the luxury of paying to send them away, so just like Colliewoman, we wanted to try and use every last big of our lovely lambs.  They were Zwartbles and a lovely chocolatly brown so thought it would be nice to try.

We are currently curing them for a week with a bulk load of food-grade salt from Bookers.

We are then going to try tanning them with Oxalic Acid.  We found a good website explaining it all, but not sure if I am allowed to post links on this forum.

Have no clue if this is going to work, we accept it is going to take alot of hard labour to get any results, but as we cannot afford to send them away, I feel we have nothing to lose.

Fingers crossed.  Maybe I will report back in a couple of weeks and let you know how we got on.

xxStephxx