Tomorrow is Shearing Day, our busiest day of the year. So today we are quietly getting ready. The sheep came into the barn to eat their hay as usual, but today the door is shut behind them, the llamas are kept outside, and they will spend the rest of the day and night in the barn not getting rained on. They do not seem to realize what is going to happen next. They are calm cool and collected. I think tomorrow when the shearing machine starts up, they will realize.
So I am assembling the various equipment, supplies and medications we will need for shearing 36 sheep and 2 goats. I hope I am not forgetting anything. It is supposed to be stormy tomorrow with a 60% chance of snow.
While I was in the barn, I finally saw the peahen and peafowl together. This is a first. So I took a few photos of them before they got annoyed with me. This one didn’t have the best focus, but I liked their poses.
Wish us and our backs good luck tomorrow!
What goats do you shear? Do you have some angora goats? And that IS a great pose by your peafowl!
Thanks Monique! We shear the 2 Nigora goats we have. Our Pygora and Angora does died of old age, and our red Angora wether was killed by our black Cashmere wether so neither are with us anymore. So we are down to just 2 fiber goats. One is cream colored, and the other is brown.
Oh – you have Nigoras – I’m very curious about those. How do you like the fibre? I have a pygmy/nigerian cross, and I can breed her either to a pure Nigerian buck, or a pygora buck. What would you do?
good luck with shearing tomorrow, I hope it goes better than last year!
Jackie
Thanks Jackie! I am confident it will go better with a more experienced shearer.
Love the peacock/hen picture! Good luck with the shearing…
Thanks Jan! My back already hurts just getting ready for shearing. I hope I will be able to stand in 24 hours…
I had no idea you had that many sheep! Do you send the fiber off to be processed or do you do some of it yourself?
Yes, we have way to many sheep. I have sent our fiber away to be processed, but I now have an electric carder and am going to try to process the wool here.
Wow, that IS a lot of sheep when you see them all together like that. My guys were the same – I penned them up last night with the panels up (something I’ve never done) and they seemed fine. I was surprised they were so calm. Cinnamon was the only wild card, but she mostly held it together.
Eifiion was a little early so I hadn’t had a chance to move them into the last/best area before he came (small gated enclosure that is sturdy enough to handle them trying to escape). They were definitely on edge (always are with strangers) but I was able to get them in there by myself after two tries while Eifion got ready. He is SO fast – I barely kept up with getting the vaccines and drench ready for each one (preloaded the vaccs earlier that morning, so that helped). You’ll be done before you know it tomorrow!
I am glad your sheep did OK with the shearing. You are right, Eifion was hard to keep up with. We were done in 2 hours!
I didn’t realize how many sheep you had. Hope everything went well.
Yes, we have way too many sheep! And it went quite well.
Hopefully, you can use them as part of the plan for more income. 🙂
Monique,
We have 2 Nigoras at this point. I love their fiber. I just finished spinning it. My only issue is that some guard hairs end up in the fiber even after processing, and I am having to pluck them out. I love the colors and the softness of the fiber. Some years the fiber does felt on the goat, and it is a waste. Brown Sugar’s this year may have felted. I need to take a better look at it when I get a chance. If you would like a fiber goat, I would breed your doe to the Pygora.
Donna