April 7, 2014

Nancy is working on one of the Shetlands…

Paula is shearing while Csupasz is taking a break before getting the next sheep from ourside

We had to ignore the pups for a while today, because we were busy outside with sheep shearing.  We do it twice a year, in the spring and at the beginning of the fall. We always hire people to do it. (we work with the same two ladies, Nancy and Paula for years because they are skilled, fast and gentle with our flock). We’ve tried to do it ourselves the first year when we bought the farm but we realized very soon that this is a back breaking hard job and one really needs to know how to handle effectively and safely those dangerous high powered electric clippers.  So we just select the sheep with the help of one of the dogs and collect the wool.

Isolating the sheep during the spring shearing is not an easy task.  The ewes are not long after lambing and especially shetlands, tend to be nasty and dangerous for the dog as they try to protect their lambs.  (On the video it sort of shows that we do not let the dog too close to the sheep and rather try working with him from a safer distance.  This way the ewes and the lambs do not get stressed out and also keeps the dog out of harms way.)

The highlight of the day was shearing Harang, our Komondor, after all the sheep were done. Click here ———>   Video Shearing Harang Apr 07, 12 31 07 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwCsIJUT–Q <——- Click here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKNStn3P8_g&sns=em <——-Click here (a funny one)