vendredi 25 mai 2007

Shearing your Ouessant Sheep*


Yours truly shearing one of the Ouessant girls . Now I don't get any marks for technique but shearing your sheep is important and necessary. Lambs don't need to be trimmed in their first year but come the begining of the second year May June is a good time although I have been known to start in April you should arrange for them to be sheared or look at doing them yourself not as hard as it sounds but beware if you didn't have a bad back to start with it won't be long...............

Here I am actually using an old pair of dog clippers oster A5 's to be exact and I have a number 15 blade on although a 10 would do just as nicely. Its a good time to do a routine maintenance check so as well as checking teeth and ears and getting a good look at whats going on under the fleece, you will be able to do their feet and worm if its in part of your programme.


I keep the fleece for hand spinners, so like to do a tidy job not to mention I get a certain amount of satisfaction out of it. Getting a shearer in needn't be expensive depending on the number of sheep you have but if you have just a couple you may need to take them to a friend and get a decent number done to make the cost of shearing economical.

Here is the finshed article.

The Ouessant Sheep originates from the island of Ouessant, part of a tiny archipelago just off the north coast of Finistere, Brittany. The island of terror as it was known to some, was swept by the full force of the atlantic’s weather, the hardy sheep adapted to survive on poor grazing from salty clifftop meadows. It was the women of the island that raised the sheep, renowned for their black wool to weave into cloth known locally as berlinge and their meat with its sweet and delicate taste.

La race "Mouton d'Ouessant" est originaire de l’île d’’Ouessant qui fait parti d’un petit archipel au large du Finistère, Bretagne. L’île de l'épouvante comme c'était connu par certains était balayé par les intempéries de l’atlantique, ces moutons rustiques s'adaptaient à survivre sur les pâturages pauvres des falaises salées. C’était les femmes de l’île qui élevaient les moutons réputés pour leur laine noire à tisser « la berlinge » une étoffe régionale et leur viande avec un goût doux et délicat.

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