what ? #
I live in a rural area. I have a small flock of sheep, and got kinda hooked shearing them so I started doing so for other sheep owners around.
This post will contain random advice and mistakes about it.
recently #
Against all advice, I purchased an used pair of rusted shears that I restored and sheared my flock of 5 to practice. Most people here have sheeps of the "Ouessant" breed. They're very small, weighting about 20Kg each. They're famously hard to shear because it's all hoofs and bones and they keep wiggling all the time.
I met a guy in a neighboring town with a flock of 15. He also had an electric trimmer but was to afraid to use it because he wounded his sheeps with it the last time he tried. We agreed I'd shear all of them for free, and he would give me the trimmer as a payment. He ended up happy with the job and even threw a couple of ewes in my trunk as a bonus tip. Yeah, apparently that happens !
I then went on doing a couple more here and anothere there. I don't know why, but I love doing this !
Apparently shearers are very hard to come by nowadays. Nobody wants to do it anymore, so maybe I could offer my services and make a few bucks ! Before putting an ad on the "craiglist" equivalent we have, I reached to another shearer for advice. Curious to know about his tips, prices, etc.
learnings on my own #
Never pull the fleece ! That stretches the skin and that's where I cut it accidentally.
Always carry some disinfectant. There will be wounds.
Sit the sheep to calm them, but don't try to sit them up straight. The more they go limp and round the calmer they are.
There is a point where I end up with a knee softly resting on their butt, to shear their neck. Then I move it to their neck to shear their butt. I put no pressure on it, but having a knee discourage them from trying to wiggle away.
The "bowen" technique works nice with trimmer or shears. It describes what to shear in what order and how to position the sheep. Starting with the belly and crotch helps removing the dirtiest parts first. Online video helps.
Don't pull the fleece !
Sometimes the fleece is so heavy it pulls on the skin depending on how you position her. Pulling the fleece is the best way to cut some skin.
I did grind the tip of the clippers to avoid puncturing the skin, but then they would'nt penetrate the wool and I couldn't chear more than 2cm each blow. I had to grind them pointy again !
My top priority is not to hurt the sheep. Speed is only second, but it's useful to have some estimate of how long it takes to shear one so I can tell the clients if I can handle their flock in ½,1 or 2 days. With the clippers it takes ~20 minutes, and I did only 3 with the trimmer but was closer to 12 minutes.
Don't pull the fleece ! Ever !
"Opening the neck" is scary. I don't see anything, and I'm shearing from the belly up to the chin without seeing anything ! So far, I made no mistake here.
The worst part are shoulders because it's easy to miss the angle and puncture or cut a bit of skin, and the last butt cheek because that's what I do last and the fleece pulls so much on the skin.
learnings from the call #
We had a call for about 35 minutes and was very nice. Apparently, there is some sort of solidarity among shearers here, so that's good to know. He confirmed everything I already knew, but also provided a lot of technical details.
He started last year and shears as a second-job/hobby. He did the whole season with hand-shear/clippers and now has a trimmer. He told me different breed have different wool and necessitate different blades for the trimmers. Some have a very wide comb for dense and dirty wool, and some have many teeth to deal with finer wool.
Trimmer blades also have to be sharpened every 10 to 20 sheep, and can be quite expensive: up to 5€ per pair.
He is as sad as I am about not having anything to do with the wool after shearing. It's a nice material but demands a lot of work to spin it.
He told me there are two types of shearer really. The real "pro" one that do hundred of sheeps a day in big farms, and people like us that shear small flocks the pro don't want to deal with. Pros usually don't like to do Ouessants breed because they're so small and bony. These folk take less than 5€ per ewe, while he takes about 10€.
We also talked about that flock that hadn't been sheared last year that had huge locks and matted wool. He advised to get a clip (or is it a scissor ?) from the "Jakoti" brand for that.
He told me he averages 12 minutes per sheep with the clippers and 4 with the trimmer.
now #
I think I'll setup my ad on craiglist, and unless I have a big flock (e.g. more than 10) or am in a hurry, I'll keep using my hand shear. I find it more relaxing, less dangerous and I can sharpen it myself on the go with a stone for free.
I also like hand tools. I still mow my grass with a scythe, so I guess hand shearers suit me well. I've seen people handle a sheep in 4 minutes with them on the internet, so I guess I'll just have to get good !