[Mills]

I'm a newbie shepherdess and I have two yearling Shetlands ewes. One of them has started shedding her fleece already. Is it not a bit early? I'm in Lancashire and its pretty chilly still. Down her neck to her shoulders is now bald and the rest of her is starting to look pretty loose. I was planning on rooing them if not hand shearing them myself but I didn't think it would be this early in the year. (Unless they know we're in for a mega heatwave!)

Anyone else's Shetlands shedding this early?

[in the hills]

We have Soay. A few of them look as though their fleece is just starting to lift in places.


Some of ours self shed completely while others still have a pretty full fleece by May time.


We usually wait until the local sheep farmers start to shear their flocks and then roo. It's usually in May. We are fairly high up in the Welsh hills though.

[harmony]

Hopefully, she knows something about the weather we don't 


Have you checked to make sure she isn't lousy? Also has she been ill/stressed - can cause wool slip.

[SallyintNorth]

We've had problems with lice this winter, with them being on hay for so long, and the grass wet so they'd lie on the hay too.  So yes, as far north as you are, I'd definitely check they don't have passengers

[Womble]

Just a word about Rooing - we found that our Manx Loaghtans started to look like burst sofas quite early in the year, particularly around their necks, but the rest of the fleece wasn't ready to come off.

For a small flock, it worked quite well to do it in stages, i.e. take off the loose wool around the neck, and then when it stopped wanting to come, just stop and go back a while later when it does.  HTH!

[in the hills]

Ours don't like being caught up so less stressful to get them all stripped in one go.


We cut the fleece off using dressmaking scissors ..... thanks Fleecewife!

[Mills]

Thanks everyone. I will check for lice this afternoon and  that Agnes just has a feeling that summer is around the corner