Sheep shearing day

To day I sheared ten of our twelve sheep. I was not planing to shear to day but I noticed that one of the Shetland ewes was rubbing against a bush to snag her wool off. Shetland sheep are a primitive race of sheep and they will shed their wool on there own if it is left on too long in the spring. So I sharpened up the sheep shears and started shearing the one that just had a lamb the same one that was rubbing. This was the sheep's first shearing so the fleece is called a Hogget fleece because the tips of the wool locks is the wool the sheep was born with last year. I shear with hand shears they are shaped like two chef knives on a loop of spring steel which is the handle and look like a giant pair of scissors and are razor sharp. I can shear a sheep in 15-25 minutes depending on the size of the sheep. This is a lot slower than someone using power shears though the man who taught us could do it in 8 minutes. The 2 sheep left to shear are going to have their lambs any day so I'll wait till after they lamb to shear them.

Shearing a Polypay sheep

and shearing a Shetland

All done, Ah that feels much better

New mother takes a rest with her lamb after a bad hair day.