BAYMULE FINALLY HAS SHEEP!!!

[secuono]

My new guy charges $5 a sheep plus travel. But no travel fee if there are more flocks in the area on the same day. $100 minimum. I also tip them, he has someone with him that also shears, they're done in no time.
So with my 12 sheep, it's just $8.33. Very cheap and wool can sell for a good amount still. I sell it for $20 full fleece. If I coated, grained and skirted it well, I could sell by the pound for more money, but then the cost of graining and the coating would be the problem and too expensive to be worth it. Would never see the return.

Wool can be used for insulation in your house, homemade furniture and pillows, etc. So even as just a pet, if you live in a place where the sheep can live on pasture and only need hay in winter, they can pay for their own keep easily.

 

[ninnymary]

How often do you have to shear them?

Mary

 

[majorcatfish]

there's a vendor down at the farmer's market that sells goat cheese..good stuff

 

[Nyboy]

Goat cheese $5 a sheep that is unbelieveable

 

[secuono]

Once a year.
For some breeds that grow super long wool, then 2x a year.

My previous shearer averaged about $13-$14 a sheep, travel was about $45 of the total.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I like the way you look at total cost. To me, that is realistic.

 

[baymule]

Being a sheep newbie, I knew I didn't want to shear sheep. I don't knit or crochet, don't spin wool, so personally, I didn't want to fool with it. Maybe someday, but not now. I love lamb. Hair sheep are meat breeds. I also like it that they are polled. @ninnymary the best way to tell if a goat or a sheep, goats tails stick up, sheep tails hang down, if their tails haven't been docked. 2 of my sheep have their tails, 2 are docked. Tails are docked to keep their poo from sticking to their wool or hair and getting fly strike. (that's maggots) Some hair sheep don't need to be docked , but they do it anyway, especially for show sheep.

 

[Beekissed]

Nah.

Sheep wouldn't be my first choice for a pet. While DD has to take Garbanzo and Waffles the dogs to the groomer and I sometime enjoy the experience of picking them up, I never had a dog that required special grooming.

The fact that shearing now costs more than the wool for nearly all sheep is a little sad. What does it cost to have a sheep sheared? Sure seems like it would discourage their popularity while their ease of keeping and other qualities should encourage it.

Steve
who can even imagine milking a ewe - cheese!

That's the beauty of hair sheep...no shearing. Bay's sheep look naked because of where she lives...warm there, I'm thinking. In colder months they have a wool coat that they shed come spring.....but it's not as deep and woolly as wool breeds, even with all that.

Here's a pic or two of mine going into fall...

....along with my version of a sheep hut....

Early spring before shedding wool...

Starting to shed...

In the lambing jug with just a mane left of the fleece still hanging on...

MUCH cuter than goats with their long, pretty tails spinning as they nurse....that tail standing up all the time is one of the reasons I don't like the looks of goats. All their privates staring at you all the time...seems gross to me.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, thanks so much for those pictures. I've learned so much. It's funny how nature does all the work for us. You don't have to shear them. I do like them best with that little bit of fur though.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, thanks so much for those pictures. I've learned so much. It's funny how nature does all the work for us. You don't have to shear them. I do like them best with that little bit of fur though.

Mary

Me too, especially the pure Katahdins(the white ones in my pics)...their wool is so fine and silky in texture, much deeper than the crosses and has much more creamy lanolin, so it tends to come off in large sheets, compared to the mixes where it comes off in bunches and tags. I'm a picker, so I'd grab some of those raggedy tags of wool as I walked by...couldn't stand to see them hanging here and there.

The thing with those breeds, though, is having plenty of scratching posts handy for shedding time or they will work your fencing into a bowed out mess trying to get shed of that wool....it's an itchy time and process, I gather.