The first shear fleece often will not roo, so it's best to hand shear through the rise. Just get some ladies size hand shears (the design is the same as the Romans, and I'm sure loads of other people, used centuries ago). Wait until you can see a clear line about a couple of centimetres above the skin (the rise). You can follow a shearing pattern, but I have seen people shear their sheep standing, taking off a small amount of fleece at a time, starting at the centre line and working downwards. The britches are often not ready for another couple of weeks. Just be sure to keep the shears parallel with the skin, don't stretch the skin by pulling on the fleece, avoid nipples, lady bits, boy bits and skin flaps, by putting a hand over them (yes, even the penis - in fact especially the penis). You are far less likely not to cut your own hand. (Professional shearers please don't read this
it's definitely not 'the way' to remove fleece properly, but it does work where you just have a couple to do)
For the second fleece and onwards, you can usually roo, but the sheep needs to be trained a bit like for milking. I tie mine to a gate, on a sunny day (this softens the grease and makes the process much easier). I sit on a milking stool, holding the sheep front and back against the gate with my two knees. I have some large containers with me. Mr F can remove a whole fleece in one go, but I prefer to take it off staple by staple, sorting as I go, putting the different qualities of fleece into the different bins, so it's ready for spinning.
Just do a little at a time - it's a slow process and your sheep will not want to stand too long. As you've seen, round the neck is the first place to roo itself, so start here. The neck wool is often matted and full of seeds and broken hay, so you're unlikely to be keeping it and it's ideal to practice on. Because it's matted, you need to separate the fleece into locks, pulling a small bundle of staples apart by the tips towards the skin. Each staple is then removed by holding the skin down with one hand and gently teasing the old growth from the new growth beneath. Or you could decide just to shear that bit off.
Once that's done, you should find that the front half of the sheep has fleece which is ready to roo - where we live in Scotland this is usually June, sometimes into July.
Use the same technique of taking just a few staples in one hand, holding down the skin (this stops it hurting the sheep), then wiggle the old fleece from the new. Carry on until the rise is less obvious, or too close to the skin, usually the back half. Work your way neatly and in rows, not taking a bit here and a bit there, taking off a tuft at a time, talking to your sheep, making sure she is ok, give her a treat every now and then.
I tend to do one front half one day, the other side the following day, then wait a couple of weeks to get the britches off.
Mr F's method for peeling the fleece off is mainly for Soay. He starts along the middle of the back and rolls the fleece clear back and down, which gives you two half fleeces. If you want a whole fleece you need to start at the neck and unpeel the whole thing backwards towards the tail. My hands aren't big enough or strong enough to do this, and I prefer to take my time and roo a staple at a time, then set off to my spinning wheel with the trophy
Topic: advice on rooing shetland sheep (Read 7248 times)
