Author Topic: Plucking sheep?? (Read 14729 times)

kanisha · « **Reply #30 on:** May 28, 2015, 05:13:35 pm »

Yes Fleecewife. I don't worry too much about the shorn fleeces as they are generally going to be quite heavily processed before spinning. Unfortunately some of the roo'ed fleeces almost peel themselves off and when they do so it seems there is a layer of lanolin and skin flakes where presumably the sheep has almost sweated off the fleece. Not really sure how to get rid of it $:-\$

Fleecewife · « **Reply #31 on:** May 28, 2015, 07:11:27 pm »

If it's an otherwise good fleece, turn it cut side up, then shear off the horrid layer with hand shears. It's a bit awkward, so only worth it for a good fleece. There will still be some flakes in the rest of the fleece, but once it's been washed and is not so sticky, the flakes are more likely to shake out.
It also comes out better with combing than carding, or seems to for me.

If you've roo'ed the alternative way, by pulling off tufts individually, which gives you a virtually no-prep product, then you can just snip the bottom off each staple as you go, but there won't be such a bad problem anyway.

in the hills · « **Reply #32 on:** June 11, 2015, 11:42:19 am »

Thank you FW for your tips earlier in this thread. Ours were in various states of undress and decided to hand roo and 'trim' off fleece where necessary this year as a couple had areas remaining that they didn't drop naturally last year. We haltered them and tied to the fence and set to work with them in the standing position. Amazing how differently they roo'd. Some peeled off in more or less one piece while others needed trimming. We used my dressmaking scissors!!!

You were right .... it worked a treat. Even used your tip of a stool to sit on! Luckily we worked late and no local farmers around to see us giving our 'goats' a haircut.

They were Heptavac'd, roo'd and Crovect'd ..... so hopefully sorted for a while. Possibly not ideal to do all this in one 'sitting' but they have been tricky to catch for some reason .... known only to themselves .... so seemed best to get the necessities sorted. Catching them involved a swinging gate with a string that was the length of the field.

Never mind ... they were outwitted in the end! Once released they ran, jumped and butted each over well into the night.

Many thanks .... now to find time to wash all that fleece.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #33 on:** June 11, 2015, 12:10:36 pm »

Thank you for your thanks, in the hills

and I'm glad you got it all done so quickly

Good luck with the washing. I haven't started mine for this year, but then we've only shorn 4 sheep so far.

kelly58 · « **Reply #34 on:** June 11, 2015, 12:59:42 pm »

What sheep do you have 'in the hills' ? We have to do the same to catch our Boreray. Do you use a race ?

in the hills · « **Reply #35 on:** June 15, 2015, 06:41:21 pm »

Sorry Kelly58, just seen your post.

We have Soay and in general they have been fairly easy to catch. We use a hurdled area where we feed them regularly and call them in using a bucketful of food. Then usually just close the gate once their noses are in the trough. They are clever though and notice if you are carrying anything 'suspicious' or if they see two of us they know something is going on!

For some unknown reason, they haven't been playing ball lately and dashing out before we could even attempt to close the gate up. Possibly they are not interested in the food really as they are up to their necks in grass at the moment!

Once in the hurdled area we close up the area to make it smaller. We are thinking of making a better system soon which may include a make shift 'race' to make handling easier. Those horns can be a danger and one of the wethers that we have at the moment is a little 'highly strung' and could hurt himself or someone else by charging about as we bring the hurdles in to decrease the size of the holding area.

Boreray share a lot of genetics with the Soay so guessing they are similar in their behaviour.

How do you handle things?

fiestyredhead331 · « **Reply #36 on:** June 15, 2015, 07:27:17 pm »

we use the dog to get ours in to a corner then hurdle round them, once I start roo-ing they pretty much just give up and stand there til I'm done

in the hills · « **Reply #37 on:** June 15, 2015, 07:32:44 pm »

If only ......

Mine chase the dog

and don't think they'd ever dream of just standing there.

What kind are they Fiestyredhead? I want some!

fiestyredhead331 · « **Reply #38 on:** June 16, 2015, 12:32:29 am »

Boreray crosses and a couple of pure Boreray, if you want a laugh you can watch the video my OH put on of me roo-ing them the other day on my facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/marianne.simpson