Well, we clip the commercial flock in batches of 20 to 40 at a time, sometimes we might do three or four batches in one session. So some of this will be OTT for people with a handful of sheep, but I'll share my thoughts in case any of it is useful.
Perfect handling for shearing depends somewhat on what equipment the shearer brings with him/her. If they have a shearing trailer, then your setup would differ depending on whether they have square pens or a long race to hold the sheep awaiting clipping.
But whatever the setup, whoever is catching the sheep for the shearer (which is often the shearer) will appreciate always having more than one in a smallish area, so that they are easy to get hold of. One on its own is too flighty. If the shearer has to shear in that space, then you can't have it too jam packed with sheep or they'll be in the way, but if they are taken out of the holding pen to a different place to be clipped, then keeping the holding pen pretty packed makes it much easier to catch one each time.
Have somewhere for the clipped sheep to go to get out of the way once they're clipped, too.
If you have more than a handful of sheep, I find it best to think in terms of a holding pen or race, and a pre-holding pen. If you top up the holding pen (from whence the sheep are taken to be shorn) from the pre-holding pen, the sheep should move from the one to the other fairly readily - never let the holding pen get as low as two animals.
To fill the pre-holding pen, some sort of funnel or corridor along a wall works well. A bend helps, for some reason. IME, if you walk out of the funnel or corridor you want the sheep to go down, and walk straight on, past the sheep, they are pretty likely to walk past you and into the funnel/corridor you came out of.
If it is one sheep wide, and has a bend in it, and leads into an open pen or a race with sheep already in it, they usually just go in and join up with the sheep already there.
The shearer will appreciate sheep who haven't been stressed by the gather and subsequent handling - the calmer they are, the easier they are to shear, and the less likely they are to get cut.
As to getting helpers to help load the sheep and to wrap the fleeces - if your fleeces will be nice for handspinning, and you can plan ahead, you should at least be able to get a handspinner or two to help wrap? In exchange for one or two going home with them, of course.
Topic: Shearing today! (Read 5779 times)
