About three weeks ago, we mentioned we had a broody hen (Broody Hens Conundrum); Mrs Mills Junior (MMJ) to be precise. After last year when two hens sat on eggs but none hatched, we decided to source fertilised eggs. It was made easy by the fact that MMJ was broody but not actually sitting on any eggs.
secure location
So, we moved her to a secure location, her own personal run safe and secure from the weather, predators and nosey hens. We settled eight eggs underneath her and sat back to wait. 24 days was the time to hatching according to reliable sources.
This week, they hatched, a little early we suspect. First we knew was Friday morning when a tiny ‘seep seep’ could be heard. Peering down the run into the hen house revealed MMJ peering back accompanied by a hatchling stretching its neck to look at us. We had chicks!
We kept our distance, despite much temptation to peek more closely. Today, we were rewarded by the sight of MMJ taking her brood out for a walk in the sunshine. I say walk, what I really meant was nap. MMJ was sitting there happily and one tiny head was poking out from under one of her wings. We both stood and watched, our breath held in anticipation. A few minutes later (long minutes let me tell you), a second head popped out from under her front. Two chicks. Moments later, two more heads. Four chicks.
Eventually, all four squeezed out and started mooching around in the grass under MMJ’s watchful eyes.
At this point, Nicole sneaked round and checked the hen house. Of the eight eggs, five had hatched. We waited and watched, but number 5 never appeared. With things to do, including sheep to shear (Shearing 2022 – hand clipping the woolly Ryelands), we left them to it.
Later on, I made a cuppa for Nicole and took it to her at the shearing pen. On the way back, I checked in on MMJ. She was up and about scratching away happily and was surrounded by five chicks.
This is excellent news. Not only will we have chicks brought up and accepted into the flock, MMJ only had to sit for 3 weeks. Last year, sitting on eggs that turned out not to be fertilised, Clippy and Pepper sat for 9 or 10 weeks, maybe longer, and their condition suffered as a result. MMJ’s comb is bright red, as it should be, and she looks to be in excellent condition. All in all, we are well pleased we decided to give her her own enclosed space.
Next job, check the wider perimeter so the chicks can’t get through the fence onto the track.
I love vinegar! It has so many uses around the house other than in the culinary department. I use it in the dishwasher as a rinse aid, I make up a vinegar and water solution and clean my windows with it, I spray a vinegar solution onto the iron and bathroom taps to get rid of limescale and I use it as a stain remover. I even use it in the garden as a weed killer. My list could go on and on! But as this blog entry is part of my “Woolly Tips” – washing wool series, I’m going to rein myself in and focus on the benefits of using vinegar when washing wool, be that woolly socks, jumpers or felted fleece rugs.
First of all, a little bit about vinegar. There are loads of different types of vinegar; wine, sherry, cider, malt, balsamic, white, rice and lots more. Very simply put, each type of vinegar is made from a different core ingredient be this grapes, apples, grain or whatever else. Of all the different vinegars, white vinegar is the one traditionally used for cleaning as it’s slightly more acidic (therefore stronger) than the other vinegars. It is also colourless so there’s no risk of leaving a trail of vinegar stains in your wake as you go around the house merrily spraying it onto your taps and windows.
While my preferred vinegar for cleaning and weed control is white vinegar, I use cider vinegar for rinsing wool whether I’m washing bobble hats, socks and jumpers, or one of my felted fleece rugs. The simple reason I use cider vinegar is that I have litres of it knocking around because we make our own. If I didn’t have a glut of cider vinegar then I’d probably reach for the white vinegar.
So what are the benefits of using vinegar as a wool wash rinse?
I am bursting to tell you so here we go:
It removes lingering soap residue. This is particularly relevant if I’m handwashing a large felted fleece rug because rinsing one of these out can be quite tricky not to mention back breaking. Adding a slosh of vinegar to each rinse makes those soap bubbles disappear faster than a sheep sniffing out a sheep nut.
It closes the cuticles on the wool fibres making it smooth and silky. As with hair, the surface of wool fibres is made up of overlapping cuticles. When washing wool, the combination of warm water and soap opens the cuticles and leaves wool feeling a little stressed and rough to the touch if we don’t close the cuticles again. Enter vinegar! Vinegar does a marvellous job of closing those cuticles and smoothing out the wool fibres.
It restores wool’s pH back to being slightly acidic which is its preferred state. If you get geeky about laundry detergents as I confess I am, you’ll notice that wool and silk detergents have a lower, more acidic pH than “normal” laundry detergents for cottons and synthetics. “Normal” detergents as a rule, shouldn’t be used to wash wool because although the alkaline composition does a great job of cleaning, it is too harsh for wool and over time can cause damage to the fibres. Since I use an alkaline soap to felt my fleeces (alkaline soap is the best for felting), I absolutely need to restore the wool’s pH back to being slightly acidic. Each time I make a felted fleece rug it gets a vinegar bath after the final wash. I can almost hear it sighing with relief as it sinks into the water and the cuticles can relax again after all that hard work felting.
Sometimes people ask me how much vinegar to use in their rinse water/rinse cycle. My answer would be there’s no rule really, I use a “slosh” which probably equates to about 15mls with each rinse.
I also get asked if vinegar makes your woolly jumpers or felted fleece rugs smell like a chip shop. Funnily enough, once the wool is dry there is no vinegary smell at all. I also rinse my hair in a vinegar solution and can assure you that there is no smell of vinegar whatsoever, which is just as well because much as I like vinegar I wouldn’t want to walk around in a cloud of “eau de vinegar”.
This year we decided to hand clip our flock. We normally have them sheared by a pro and in recent years we’ve had a lovely chap round called Guy who specialises in small flocks. He does a great job and we’re really pleased to be on his books.
It was our sheep Vera who got us thinking about hand clipping this year. Vera has a sun allergy and each year just after shearing poor Vera gets the itchies. She comes up in red spots and we need to give her cream and steroids to help her cope. This goes on all summer from June until October when the weather cools down and her wool starts growing again. Although her sun allergy came about originally as a result of eating a toxic plant a few years back, we think losing her fleece at shearing time is definitely a trigger for “the itches”. We also think her skin might be a little irritated by the shearing blades.
So we thought we’d hand clip Vera this year and not give her a “number 1” hair cut, we’d give her a neat trim instead using hand shears. We thought leaving a little covering of wool on her might help her skin.
Happy with this plan we then had a radical thought, why stop at Vera, let’s hand clip them all!
starting …
The result being that off I went this morning to shear my first sheep, Yaar! (aka Mr Roly Poly).
Originally myself and Adrian were going to share the task of shearing, but we received Elliot our new dog last week. We’ve not trained him (or the sheep) to be in each other’s company yet so Adrian is on dog duty while I’m going to be shearing solo.
So, off I went on the quad bike with four hurdles rattling around on the back tied on with bailer twine. I also had with me my trusty pink rucksack containing my newly purchased shears, halter, water bottle, wound spray, plasters and some sheep nuts .
Slightly nervous, this being my first time hand clipping, I found the sheep in one of the top fields and set up a pen where they were, in situ. They gathered round curious as I laid everything out, including my instructions on a piece of paper which promptly blew away.
making progress
I brought Yaar into the pen and got to work.
As you can see from the photos, I decided to clip the sheep with them standing up as opposed to the more usual way which is where you have them in a sitting position between your legs and move “as one” with the sheep. Our flock are a relaxed bunch and are happy chewing cud and breathing in our ears while we do whatever needs doing to them. That said, this morning I did pop a halter on Yaar in case he decided to wander off at a critical moment.
I started at the nape of the neck and clipped away. An hour or so in I was quite pleased with my progress, I’d taken off most of the wool from his “barrel” and miraculously I’d managed to do it so it came off in one piece, a bit like peeling an orange. As I use their fleeces to make things with I didn’t want it all in bits floating around the hills!
After two hours of work I could tell Yaar was getting bored and I needed a cup of tea and something to eat so I let him out and went back to the house for some refreshment.
about halfway
Half an hour later, re-energised, I went back and worked some more until lunch time. By now I’d done all of him except one of his back legs and his tummy.
just the back lets and tummy to go
After lunch I went back and finished him off. The trickiest part was definitely his tummy, Ryelands have a lot of wool on their tummies, more than most sheep and I had to watch that I didn’t accidentally castrate him. Poor Yaar, he let me crawl underneath him like a mechanic, he was so patient with me!
all done!
By mid afternoon I’d finished, I calculated I’d worked on him for about three hours not including all the breaks. I’m hoping the more I shear the faster I’ll get and hopefully I’ll have them all done and sporting new haircuts by the end of June!
Just over a year ago, we lost Haribo, our collie, to diabetes. This left George as the only canine in the house. While it was tempting to rush out and find him a new friend, we held back. It sounds like a good idea but is, in reality, a double whammy. Dogs are affected by change more than death. Becoming a solo dog was a significant change for George given he’s always had other dogs around. But introducing a second dog would be further change and would likely cause even more stress.
On top of that, we have come to really like the Anatolian Shepherd breed. They have gentle natures, are good with sheep, good with hens and make excellent guard dogs. They like nothing better than sitting on a hill keeping watch in all directions. The problem is, they are rare in the UK. You can source pure bred puppies, but we are not big fans of pure bred dogs as many come with underlying health issues. Ideally, we’d find another George, a mix of (predominantly) Anatolian and other breeds.
In November, we found Animal Friends of Turkey (AFOT). They are a charity rescuing dogs that face uncertain, or should I say dire futures. We scrolled through the dogs looking for new homes and found a number of Anatolian Shepherds. We wanted to take them all, but realism prevailed and we decided to try and adopt Elliot.
We contacted AFOT and they proved very helpful and approachable. We went through the usual checks and Elliot was reserved for us. It took a while, paperwork and all that, but finally, Elliot set forth for the UK accompanied by 10 other dogs on 24th May this year. That was on the Tuesday. He arrived here on Sunday morning after an astonishing drive from southern Turkey. His first act, after a short walk to introduce him to George was to lay a large poo in George’s bed.
with Adrian
As you might expect, he was a little stressed from all the change, but in true doggie style, he hid it well. George was quite keen to make friends, but Elliot barely gave him a glance. He did, however, show much wariness towards me. This is not unusual, most dogs that have experienced abuse have experienced it from men. It did not take me long to win him over, helped by my giving him his breakfast.
catching up on some sleep
Over the day, Elliot visibly relaxed. He had the odd moment, howling like a wolf to try and rally his now distant pack. But all in all, he settled in very quickly. He is also very intelligent, picking up some of our guidance with only one or two prompts. We took him out for a longer walk in the afternoon and made a start on recall training, a treat given for taking a single step towards us.
At one point, we passed near the sheep. They were somewhat nonplussed at seeing an unknown predator and gathered into a tight bunch before heading over to investigate. We calmly walked Elliot away. He turned to look at the onrushing stampede, tucked into a nearby blade of grass before continuing unperturbed. Formal sheep introductions have yet to take place (best not to do too much at once), but we are confident they will go well.
Nicole decided to stay downstairs overnight and set up the futon in the living room. It turned out to be excellent forethought as Elliot had a panic attack in the middle of the night. He’d probably woken up and wondered where he was, everything being unfamiliar. Nicole was on hand and her calming influence meant it soon passed.
dinner time
Today, Elliot has been a revelation. We have set aside a paddock for him to run in and we took him there first thing this morning. The sheep were in the paddock next door and they gathered to inspect him through the gate. They were a little nervous, but as before, Elliot showed no threat and, after a short exchange of glances. I led him away.
By now, Elliot had acknowledged George, but George was playing hard to get. We took them to the paddock to see if they would play. It would be Elliot’s first time off the lead since he got here.
play bow
First off, Elliot, when called would coming loping over to us, something George has not mastered in his nine years with us. It was a heart-warming experience. However, surrounded by new smells and experiences, Elliot showed little inclination to play despite our best efforts to mimic play bowing. But all of a sudden, he was off, charging round the paddock like a greyhound. He has incredibly long legs. In a flash, George joined in and they bounded around together. They also took turns to lie on their backs in play mode, legs moving as if they were riding an upside down bike, a real sign of mutual trust.
Elliot is going to be a great addition to our household.
As all gardeners, keen or otherwise know, spring is the time for new planting and growth. This is particularly true in the vegetable patch where the salad and vegetables for the coming year are grown. Over the years, we have improved our veggie area and slimmed down our ambitions, basically we grow what works. Less is more and all that. In practice it means none of the tricky little veggies that have 5 minute harvesting windows, like peas for example.
Due to problems with slugs eating everything, in previous years we have grown everything in pots and planted out strong healthy plants. It’s a lot of work and a lot of watering. Two years ago we installed a custom made carrot box that is slug and carrot fly unfriendly. This year, I decided to bite the bullet and plant all the root crops and onions direct. What could go wrong?
spot the onion
The answer in two words is blackbirds and slugs. Now we love blackbirds. We even put out special feed for them; every day. However, 5 years of regular mulching has turned a damp desert into a thriving soil packed with worms. With young to feed, it was the perfect hunting ground for at least one blackbird family. With regular soil disturbance, nothing grew. Well, not strictly true, a couple of turnips poked their heads up, but they didn’t last long. But that could also be down to the slugs. Despite the nematodes, they have been spotted in late evening amongst the fragile vegetables.
Finally, I put the nets up. Nets are great, but they too have their downside, mainly that no matter how carefully you install them, the birds always find a gap. So they need constant checking so the intruders can be released. Occasionally, they have to be cut free. That said, they butterfly nets are essential. Unless, of course, you find picking caterpillars off for hours on end to be a fun activity. Plus, it makes life harder for poor old Mr and Mrs Blackird, cue guilt trip.
Anyway, luckily, I did plant a few ‘reserves’ and they are now planted out so all is not lost. That said, I had to dig up the turnips as they were fast disappearing and a cabbage and kale have also succombed to slug’s munching. On top of all that, there are zero onions, unlike last year, and only about six beetroots. After writing this, I’ll be off to plant seeds to make up for what’s missing. In pots. In the greenhouse.
polytunnel salad crops
The polytunnel is planted up and is looking good. However, I made the mistake of turning the automated watering system off during the winter months. Result, soil that makes the Gobi desert resemble a water meadow. Cue lots of watering. I turned on the automated watering system to find it wasn’t working. The timer was working fine but only a trickle of water emerged at the alloted times. Baffled, I took it to pieces. Amazed at the engineering ingenuity but finding no obvious fault, I put it back together again. To my surprise, it now works perfectly.
Despite all of this, we are hoping for another good crop leading to a winter packed with fresh soups
With spring fully underway, though the weather doesn’t feel like it, we are on the lookout for broody hens. Each year, one or two of our hens decides it’s time to sit on eggs. Each has their own particular approach.
Clippy likes to disappear, much like her mother did. All of a sudden, she’ll just go off the radar and we’ll be wondering where she is. We’re never quite sure and worry that some predator has taken her. Then a few days later, we’ll catch a glimpse of her sneaking towards the food dispensers, often giving the other hens a wide berth. Putting our private detective hats on, we try to follow her back without being seen. Not easy in an open field with the tiny apple trees providing the only cover. Last year, she built a nest in a newly planted woodland area, under a bramble and right up against the fence to one of the neighbouring properties. We managed to locate it and had a quick look while she was off on one of her excursions and saw thirteen eggs (again, just like her mother).
The weeks went by. Nothing. Now hens’ eggs should hatch in around 24 days, so something was wrong. In fact, not a single egg hatched but it was months before Clippy gave up. It took her a long time to rebuild her condition.
Chicken Coop – Green Frog
Pepper, on the other hand, decided to go broody in the Green Frog henhouse. We have three henhouses, Green Frog, Solway and Omlet so our hens have plenty of choice. Normal night time spot is Green Frog (or the bushes behind it). The favourite laying spot is one of the two nest boxes in Green Frog. That said, sometimes they switch and lately the eggs have been laid in Solway (4 available boxes). Omlet (just the one nest box) has been out of favour for a while.
So, back to Pepper. Last year she decided to go broody and make her nest in Green Frog. On the plus side, we could easily monitor her. On the down side, constant interruption. Hens do like a bit of peace and quiet when they’re sitting on eggs. However, the other hens took umbrage at being locked out of their favourite nest box and made quite a racket at laying time. Well, more than usual. In fact, they managed to dislodge Pepper more than once as we found her in the left box one, day the right box the next day, then back to the left one, and so on.
Chicken Coop – Solway
We moved her and her eggs to Solway thinking that would give her some security. But as soon as Solway opened the following dawn, she was back into Green Frog. We moved her eggs back but the nest box hopping continued. As with Clippy, none hatched. The whole experience took such a toll on Pepper that she lost a lot of weight and feathers. She was in a very poor state and we started giving her extra feed to help her recover. Predators are all always on the lookout for weak or distressed animals and a local stoat took his opportunity and snatched her. Luckily, it was witnessed by Nicole who was out in flash, in her slippers, and rescued Pepper. She made a full recovery, Pepper that is.
Cherokee the cockerel
So, the question arose; why so many eggs and no hatchlings? Our attention turned to Cherokee. Now, Cherokee has blossomed since he moved in with us a few years back. He came from a house nearby where he’d survived a dog attack in which all his hens had died. He had subsequently been left to his own devices. We offered to take him and, over time, he’s gone from shy and tetchy to become Mr Cool as Mince. The problem is, he’s so cool he can’t really be bothered to catch the hens. He gets a sudden urge and lopes across the grass to the nearest hen, full of intent. She hears him coming, takes one look and makes herself scarce. Cherokee arrives where said hen was moments before, stops and looks around in a puzzled demeanour. Sometimes he catches them, but more often than not he gives up and goes off to find something to eat. His predecessor was far more persistent. Or, perhaps, Cherokee is just firing blanks.
We scratched our heads and came up with a possible solution.
Saturday past, Mrs Mills Junior (MMJ) went broody and settled down in Green Frog. We gave her a couple of days to make sure it wasn’t a false alarm and then moved her to Omlet. We had set Omlet up with its own private run which is predator proof. MMJ, surprisingly, had not laid any eggs, so we got the latest one, laid earlier in Solway, and put it in her new nest. Of course, MMJ was not too impressed and scurried around her new run squawking irritably, perhaps trying to find her way back to Green Frog. We gave her time to settle and next day, she was sitting on her single egg. Broodiness had trumped indignance.
Chicken Run – Omlet
Knowing this one egg may not be fertile, not wanting her to sit there all summer and wanting some new chicks, we sourced some fertile eggs from Backyard Chickens near Dalbeattie. Today, we zipped down there and collected them. We drove back with Nicole clutching the carefully packed eggs to protect them from the myriad of potholes that are a feature of roads in Dumfries and Galloway.
Omlet kitted out for restful brooding
Getting back, we carefully opened Omlet and reached in to pick up MMJ so we could put the eggs in place. MMJ was having none of it and shot off into her run squawking as if a giant fox was right behind her. Quietly, we placed the eight eggs in her nest and retreated. Minutes later, she was back on her nest making contented noises.
Hopefully in 24 day’s time, we’ll be reporting on squeaks and baby chickens.
If there’s one thing sheep are good at, aside from scoffing copious amounts of grass, it’s getting into pickles. These include activities such as getting your head stuck in a fence (more common in the younger members of the flock), going into panic when you realise the rest of the flock have wandered off and left you behind, getting wrapped up in brambles, getting over walls and fences into neighbouring fields, and so on. Also, the tups are quite adept at removing gates from hinges in order to meet the ladies.
Yndia and Pinkie
Some pickles are related to the time of year and, right now, wet fleeces are problem number one. This is not because a wet fleece is, in itself, cause for concern. If it were, then sheep would never survive the winter. The problem is that at this time of year, pre shearing, the fleeces are big, fluffy and crammed with wool. When they get wet, they get heavy. Again, this is all fine until… …the sheep decides it’s time to do a rolly polly.
Rolly pollies usually occur when a sheep is lying down, cudding or just generally relaxing, and decides to get up. Instead of just standing, it executes a clever roll straight onto its feet. This works well and is quite impressive – until the weight of a heavy fleece stops the roll in its tracks. Once on its back and weighed down by said wet fleece, a sheep can become trapped. The proper term is ‘cast’. This is not a good position for any of us, but it’s particularly uncomfortable for a sheep as now, all its insides are pressing in the wrong places. Not to put too fine a point on it, if they are not found within a few hours, they can die.
Yarr and his woolly fleece
Our rolly polly commander in chief is Yarr (pictured left). He has a particularly woolly fleece and a penchant for rolly pollies. He much prefers to roll out of a lying position as standing up would not be showy enough. Normally, he gets away with it as he’s pretty strong. But a quick downpour and a wet fleece and he can be in trouble.
So far, this year, he’s only got himself trapped the once and was found pretty quickly. We know this because he showed no signs of distress on being righted, other than a need to blow his nose. In previous years, on being rescued, he has been sometimes been quite shaky. He also displays a remarkable aptitude for looking for the rest of the flock in all the wrong places. In fact, it took me an hour to reunite him and, at one point, involved me running up a hill (to the gate) with a bucket of nuts just in front of his nose. We both had to stop to catch our breath at the top, panting for all we were worth.
For us, this means regular checks throughout the day, usually no more than two hours apart. This is paying off as, so far this year, aside from Yarr only Ynca has managed to get herself cast and she too was found in good time.
We’ll be shearing them soon and that will make the problem go away for another year. But the checks will continue as we move into flystrike and midgie season.
For a while now Adrian and I have been thinking about silvopasture. This is a pasture system where livestock are given controlled access to trees so they can enjoy the benefits of woodland grazing.
Silvopasture has loads of benefits, not only to livestock but also on a grander scale to the planet. The more trees which are introduced to pasture systems the more diverse flora and fauna there is and the less “green deserts” there are (sterile fields). And let’s not forget the biggie; trees are a great way to contribute towards carbon sequestration.
But coming back to livestock and in particular to sheep, as you might have read in previous stories of ours sheep love trees, they use them as scratch posts and enjoy the shelter they provide, but they particularly enjoy eating them! So, when thinking about silvopasture, the fact that livestock are rather partial to tree bark and low growing branches means any woodland grazing needs to be carefully thought about.
Done properly, livestock is given controlled access to woodland grazing, usually in strips, which minimises the risk of tree damage and overgrazing. Not allowing permanent access to woodland allows the all important flora to regenerate and continue providing delicious forage for our livestock friends year upon year.
With this in mind, we thought long and hard about how to create an area of silvopasture for our little flock. All the woodland we have around our fields is young and so not ideal. It is also surrounded by a deer fence and if we gave the sheep access we might accidentally trap a deer within the woodland which would be a problem for both the deer and the young trees.
Then Adrian had a brainwave, we have a copse ideally situated in one of the sheep’s favourite fields. The trees are mature and would provide plenty of shade. It wouldn’t be great grazing, but as an alternative field shelter it would be just the ticket!
the copse before we started work on it
Currently fenced off, the copse comprises mostly conifers (we would have preferred more of a variety of trees and are already planning interplanting some deciduous trees in amongst the evergreens). But the location of the copse is good so we’re going to work with it.
Now that our main focus would be to give the sheep somewhere shady to go on hot days we would be able to close off the field shelter which is a magnet for flies. Building the shelter seemed like a good idea at the time but looking back we probably wouldn’t have built it now. There is little airflow and although it provides shade and we keep it mucked out, flies are a big problem.
The great thing about silvopasture is that the trees provide shade, but because there is good air flow, there are a lot less flies hanging around than there would be in a field shelter.
As I’ve mentioned in previous stories, flies, especially the Blowfly are bad news for sheep. Flies in general are annoying but the Blowfly can kill. Flies are always a concern for us during the summer but it’s a tricky one because sheep don’t fare well in hot weather and actively seek out shady areas to sit in and chew the cud. But if the air flow isn’t good then flies will be a problem which can be just as stressful, if not more so, than the hot sun.
digging out bramble roots
When we made the decision to shut off access to the field shelter last month the sheep were not impressed at all. Despite it being less than ideal, they still love it and go there every day in the hope that they might be allowed in. It’s hard to see them missing their favourite haunt, but we know the new shady area will be a much better environment for them. We did explain this when we shut them out but they weren’t convinced. Sheep are creatures of habit and trundling off to sit in the old field shelter is still firmly part of their daily routine.
Just over two weeks ago we began work on the copse. First of all, Adrian created access to it by way of a wooden gate. This meant banging in a gatepost so we could fix the gate to it.
taking away endless bags of brambles
This done, we got our secateurs, loppers and pick axe and began work on the brambles. The copse was absolutely choked with them, they completely carpeted the ground and were halfway up the trees. We really had our work cut out.
We filled 12 big dumpy bags full of bramble branches and roots, we worked for two hours a day and gathered many splinters, so many we lost count.
But at long last, yesterday evening we pulled out our last bramble and were able to sit back and admire our work with a much deserved cup of tea and slice of flapjack. It was a very satisfying moment!
“after”
We will let the dust settle for two weeks and then let the sheep in. They’ll only be allowed in on hot days. We’re hoping that by only giving them occasional access during the summer when there’s plenty of grass about, they won’t be tempted to nibble bark and low growing branches.
There will be another story coming soon about how the sheep react when we let them into their “silvoshelter”, we can’t wait to see their faces when we open the gate for them and let them in to investigate!
A few years ago Adrian and I were a normal couple who had summer holidays and long weekends off, lazy Sundays and spontaneous trips away.
And then we got sheep…
To be honest, we were a little naïve when we acquired our mini flock back in 2014. We wanted to keep the grass down and I fancied doing something with wool.
our first sheep
Little did we know just how much those three innocent looking teddy bears were about to change our lives.
Our first inkling came when we went to the Mole Valley Agricultural store in Bridgewater (in Somerset where we used to live) to buy some sheep equipment. I remember that day well, we were really excited and had a long, carefully researched shopping list containing interesting sounding farmy things like drench guns, hoof shears, hurdles and hay feeders.
After ordering the hurdles, feeders and troughs from the outside bit, we went into the shop to get the rest. We popped hoof shears, a hoof pick, dagging shears, halters, bucket licks and nuts into our trolley. Then we went round to the medicines aisle where we confidently selected a bottle of antiseptic spray.
On our shopping list I’d also written “wormer”, “fluke meds” and “fly spray”. But we weren’t sure which type or brand to buy. There was so much choice! It felt very much like the washing powder aisle in Tesco’s which is somewhere I’d prefer to avoid if at all possible.
So off I went to find someone and to my relief I located the store Sheep Expert. He told us he had sheep himself and was only too happy to help us. He sat us down in a little office where there was a small round table, some chairs, and a life sized model of a sheep. He told us all about parasites; but mainly he told us about flies. He told us flies were the number one concern to sheep farmers and that we would need a fly spray to prevent and to deal with the dreaded Blow Fly. He demonstrated how to spray a sheep correctly using a demo drench gun on his model sheep.
We asked him how flies can kill sheep and soon wished we hadn’t as he went into very graphic detail. He explained that if a sheep is struck by a Blow Fly, she has only days to live. We asked him how to tell if a sheep has been struck, at which point he said, “you have to look for The Signs”. We asked him what these Signs were and he said the main one was the “head turn” where the sheep looks back over her shoulder. “Wild eyes” was another one, “bottom rubbing” and “foot stamping” were other signs, and then finally “any behaviour which is out of character”.
It was at this moment, as we heaved a bottle of Crovect into our trolley we felt the first creeping tendril of Sheep Angst taking hold. What if we didn’t spot one of The Signs? What if we didn’t apply the spray correctly? Actually, how did we even catch our sheep in order to apply the spray? (We’d only had our sheep a few days and were rubbish at rounding them up).
As we drove home, our excitement of a few hours earlier had pretty much disappeared along with a vast amount of money and we were both lost in our own thoughts as we rattled back along the lanes towing our trailer full of shiny new things.
Fast forward a few years and here we are, not exactly old hands and not exactly wiser – but definitely older and more experienced than those early days of sheep keeping.
Unfortunately, we discovered that the “sheep angst” that took hold of us both in the Farmers Store all those years ago doesn’t go away the longer you keep sheep, but you do find ways of managing it.
getting to know the flock
The first thing you do is get to know your flock. By observing your sheep you start to learn how they behave and you get familiar with their individual characters. It takes time, but it’s worth it because watching sheep is in itself is actually a lovely activity. There’s nothing quite like lying on your back in the field surrounded by your flock, listening to them cudding in your ear and nibbling your wellies.
The other thing you do is check up on your flock regularly. We check up on ours twice a day, more often if we’re lambing.
We’re very religious about our checks because nowadays we don’t use fly spray. We like to be able to handle our sheep without fear of chemicals transferring onto us. We’ve found that our scrupulous checks and regular bottom trims have paid off, in the few cases of fly strike we’ve had (two cases in four years) we have managed to deal with it very swiftly.
Apart from checking for The Signs, the checks tell you all sorts of other things, you’re mainly scanning the flock to see if anyone’s behaving out of character, you’re counting them to make sure they’re all there, and you’re making sure they’re not in pickles (lame, head stuck in fence, on back with legs in air, stuck in a hedge etc) …
The other thing that happens is, you stop going away as much. Holidays have to be meticulously planned, you book a farm-sitter and you still worry even if your farm-sitter is brilliant as our is. Bye go the lazy Sunday morning lie-ins, and bye go the spontaneous trips away.
On the plus side though, you gain lots of woolly friends and by being around sheep you find yourself learning unexpected things such as the art of patience and how to be calm. You can’t be impatient or in a bad mood with sheep, they sense it and scarper. You have to be able to compose yourself. This is really good training for being a better human. It sounds cliché but sheep have so much to teach us.
using backeze sling
We’ve also found an easier way to do all those routine things which sheep need regularly such as “crutching out” (bottom trimming), face trims and hoof trimming. We used to bring them in every three months and work through the whole flock. This would take us hours and we’d be fit for nothing afterwards. So this year we decided to bring in three sheep a week and rotate through the flock doing three a week on a continual basis. We thought it would be easier on our backs, and also better for the sheep as they’d have their bottoms and faces trimmed more often and we could catch any hoof problems faster. All in all, so far at least, we’ve found this to be a good system for us.
Yogi with her face trimmed
The other change we’ve made this year is to purchase a “backeze” sling by Longhorn. You can see me using it in the photo. It’s just brilliant! It gives support to your back exactly where you need it but is also springy so you can adjust position easily. It’s made those weekly bottom trims much easier, happy us, happy sheep!
This is the first of a series of articles I’m going to be writing about felting fleeces. As a lot of readers probably already know from visiting our shop, I transform fleeces into sheep-friendly “sheepskin” rugs and cushions by wet felting raw wool, a technique which has been around for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.
When I first started felting fleeces to make into rugs I found it very hard to get information about how to actually do it. There seemed to be a lot of mystery around it and everyone had their own technique and way of doing it. In the end I learned mostly by trial and error.
The hints and tips I’m going to be sharing with you over the coming weeks are the things I’ve gleaned over the years I’ve spent throwing fleeces around in my shed amidst tears and many cups of tea. I’ve had so many disasters and I’m embarrassed to say a lot of fleeces have ended up on the compost heap simply because I lost patience with them. But I’m happy to say there have been more successes than disasters along my woolly journey and so I’m delighted to be able to share some of my favourite tips with you.
Today’s article is about using wool which I’d normally discard to make into something lovely and useful.
I hate waste and one of the reasons I started to make cushions as well as rugs, was so that I could use up leftover wool.
scraps of leftover wool
Recently I made a cushion from scraps of wool I had leftover from a rug that I’d made a few days earlier. The leftover wool was all in bits lying on the floor.
It was really dirty and I was going to scoop it up and chuck it on the compost heap for the birds to use for nesting, when I realised that beneath the grubby exterior the wool was actually lovely quality.
Never judge a book by its cover I said to myself as I piled the scrappy wool onto my work table and got to work separating out the nice quality (albeit very dirty!) wool, from the not so nice quality, matted bits.
I was really careful about keeping only the nicest bits, any wool which was even a tiny bit matted or didn’t feel right I discarded. This was quite tricky because most of the wool was so dirty it was hard to imagine what it would look like clean. I did wonder if perhaps I was being a little over optimistic!
After a couple of hours of sorting I had enough wool to lay out into a cushion shaped frame and was able to felt it into a cushion cover.
It took a lot of washing but I was really pleased with how it turned out. It was a real “before and after” moment!
So, even scraps of wool lying on the floor can be transformed into something lovely, but mytip would be to make sure you use only good quality wool from the scrappy pile. Tempting as it may be to want to rescue all the little bits of wool you can, remember dirt can be washed out, however nothing will remedy matted or bad quality wool, you’re best leaving those bits for the birds to make into cosy nests.
There will be washing tips coming up in subsequent posts, washing raw fleeces is one of my favourite geeky things but I have so many tips that I’m going to split into several posts.
