Once spring- time comes around Benji, our wether, needs shearing because VBNs grow long, thick coats which has to come off twice a year, in spring and autumn. Sadly, we lost our other wether Boris, to pneumonia and I’ve only just felt able to write about it because he was the friendliest sheep ever, more like a big, woolly puppy, and his death hit us all very hard.
Our lovely shearer Ralph arrived, and the girls were first in line because we didn’t want to call Ralph out for two visits at one of the busiest times of the year for him. They were all very well behaved, but the funniest thing was, that after they’d been shorn, they no longer recognised each other. The top photo shows Anwen and Agnes bleating in panic at Audrey, whom they thought was a strange sheep in their midst!
Someone, who shall remain nameless, actually tried to leap over the stable door to get away from the dangerous interloper. It turns out that sheep can’t jump quite as high as they imagine with their winter woollies on, but we took no chances once they were all naked as it seemed to invigorate them and they ran up the field, leaping up vertically every couple of metres as though their legs had been replaced by springs.
The effect of the shearing on other nearby animals can’t be underestimated either. Our elderly Highland pony, Nelly, also thought that brand new sheep, and quite possibly dangerous ones too, had arrived in the field and she was quite panicked. She cantered up and down the fence line for a good quarter of an hour until she realised that these ‘new’ sheep smelt like the ‘old’ ones and that they might not be quite such a threat to her after all. To be fair to her, these thin, black sheep did look very different to the fat, brown sheep that she knew previously.
And, finally, two photos which illustrate the difference between the fleeces of the two breeds. Benji’s fleece is different in both quantity and quality compared to the Ryelands. His wool doesn’t come off as easily as theirs either and it feels like silky strands whereas the gimmers’ fleeces feel more ‘woolly’.
Foxglove Farm 