First try at hand shearing

Well I did my first try at hand shearing today. I did it all with scissors. I did my angora buck Rufus because I knew his fiber was going to be of little value because of all the VM (hay and debris) in it. And he is the wildest one of the what I have left to do. Here are a couple before pictures.

And an hour later here is the results.

I was very happy with the results! And if the fleece had not been so full of VM it would have been really nice. I can see huge advantages of doing it with scissors. It will be so easy to do most the the skirting as you are shearing. The extra time it takes to hand shear is less time it will take to skirt it and get it ready to sell or process. And for those that don't know, skirting is where you pick though a fleece that has come off the animal and you get rid of all hay, dirt, manure, and short pieces of fleece.

Now I have four shetland sheep to do and one merino sheep. Don't think I will get to them all today!

More introductions!

On to more introductons....

Here is Hailey. She was dumped on our property in February and I just did not have the heart to take her to the animal shelter. She is turning out to be a very good girl.

Here is our shetland ram DiNozzio. He has wonderful crimpy fleece that he passes alot to his offspring and I just love his horns!

Here is our angora buck Rufus. We purchased him in October and he was bred to Abby and Ziva. He is Alex and Adian's sire. He really produces the mohair.

Here are a couple of wethers that where born last year before they came to my farm. They are both offspring of DiNozzio.

And here is Agatha. She was born March 18,2010. Her mother is a black angora named Cedar that I bought last November. Her sire was a white angora buck. She will be staying on the farm.

That is all for now. Many more to come. Need to take some more pictures of them all.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!