[in the hills]

We chose not to breed from our Soay this time around ..... due to me having a nasty accident and being immobile for a while. 

The ewes started to drop their fleece as normal, several weeks ago now. About half of our tiny flock have finished dropping but the other half still have a good amount of fleece on their backs. Luckily they have shed from bottoms and heads. All are spotlessly clean and treated with Crovect. When we did the last Crovect treatment (about 3 weeks ago) we did try to roo them but the fleece wasn't ready.

They do seem to be losing it but really slowly. What's best to do? Shall we leave them to hopefully drop the remainder in their own time or do we attempt to shear  ? We are at 800 ft and never yet had strike but noticed some flies in the fields this morning ....... not around the ewes but just wondering about the risk of strike if we leave them as they are.

Any ideas?

[Fleecewife]

We have two very ancient Soay which we leave with two fleeces on over the winter, just to keep them warm.  The second fleece can look pretty tatty by spring, but it does show that Soay don't necessarily self-roo.  Yearlings in particular may not drop their fleeces and do have to be shorn.  However, as yours have lost their fleece in the important places it sounds as if they will eventually lose it all.  The fleece is ready to roo at different times, so the part naked sheep you describe, nice and smart in places, and scruffy and disreputable in others, is fairly typical.   If you are desperate to neaten them then you can take the shears to them.  The fleece will be well lifted and you can do them at this stage standing up (it sounds as if the difficult bits have rooed themselves).  Or you can wait a bit longer to see if the remainder is rooable in say a couple of weeks.  Or you can just wait for it all to come off naturally.  It helps if they have a post or something to rub against.

[in the hills]

Thanks FW.

Ours, including yearlings, have always dropped fairly quickly. Can only guess that it's something to do with hormone levels and not breeding this year.

They do rub on the fences, chicken coops and shelters. 

Have watched my neighbour hand shearing ..... worried about nicking them and attracting flies that way though.

I'll keep a close eye on them for a couple more weeks then and then think again.


How long after using Crovect should you leave them before handling them to shear ..... if it comes to it?

[langfauld easycare]

  i found when i had mine the ones that needed clipped were ones that didnt rear a lamb .

[kanisha]

I understood that this was a known that soay if not bred didn't shed. I read it somewhere about the sheep on Hirta. It would seem to be a reasonable explanation in this case.

[ladyK]

Same here: I got my Soay flock late last summer and none of the ewes was bred that year, and no, they didn't drop their fleeces.
This year I find they all drop their fleeces differently:
The males (ram & wether) started shedding really early, in February even, and where all clean by late March, the shearling ewes started shedding just after they lambed in May, and are almost clean now, and the 3 older ewes (who lambed a bit later) only just show signs of shedding on their backside and bellies (can't pull any wool off yet). So I have been wondering too if they are ever going to drop the whole fleece 

[in the hills]

Oh well, just typical of Soay ..... they do as they please 

One of our ewes didn't lamb last year but still dropped her complete fleece .... no different from the ewes that lambed.

The tup that we hired last year hadn't dropped at all and had a huge fleece on him. 

Seems no real pattern then.