When to shear sheeples?

[purplequeenvt]

I use a pair of Lister Star clippers with coarse blades from Premier1 to shear all my sheep. I don’t normal do more than 4 sheep at a go so they keep up pretty well for my use. I have a cranky shoulder that can’t handle the weight and vibration from regular shears.

 

[Niele da Kine]

Coarse blades are the ones for sheep? I have an Oster Golden A5 clipper, perhaps that could be used if I got a 'sheep' blade for it. I've only seen one official sheep clipper and that had a big blade on it and it had some sort of magnetically coupled flexible cord between the motor and the clipper head. It was way too expensive of a clipper for just two sheep.

 

[purplequeenvt]

Coarse blades are the ones for sheep? I have an Oster Golden A5 clipper, perhaps that could be used if I got a 'sheep' blade for it. I've only seen one official sheep clipper and that had a big blade on it and it had some sort of magnetically coupled flexible cord between the motor and the clipper head. It was way too expensive of a clipper for just two sheep.

Clippers are different from shears. They aren’t technically meant for shearing sheep, but would be used on a horse or cow or a clean, washed sheep that was trimmed for show.

They work on my sheep because they aren’t thick lanolin drenched fleeces. don’t think it would work well on a merino.

I use clippers over a shearing machine because my shoulder can’t handle the weight and vibration from the more powerful shears.

These are the blades I use. https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/premier-coarse-clipping-blade-set?criteria=Clipper+blades

 

[Niele da Kine]

Part of one sheep has been shorn using sewing scissors while he's tied to a post with his nose in his alfalfa pellets. He's not been too happy, but he hasn't been too grumpy either. However, it's taking awhile and we haven't gotten to the bottom of the sheep yet. He keeps wagging his tail when I try to clip near there, too.

I tried the horse clippers, but the clipper blades aren't sharp and are too small for sheep since they're sized for angora rabbits so that didn't work well. Would as coarse a blade as I can find for an Oster Golden 5A clipper work as a sheep shear, do you think? There's a 'skip teeth' #4 blade which may work. Apparently, there's many manufacturers who make 'A5' blades. I saw several of them labeled 'T.D.Q' for 'Take Down Quick' blades which look like they may be workable for sheeps as long as there's not too many sheep.

Maybe I should get a pair of shears, after all, they will need to be sheared more than once. What should someone look for in sheep shears when there's only a couple of sheep? I don't need full on professional gear, but something that will work for a half dozen or less sheep.

Or, I could just take a little more off each day until he's a naked sheep, but it's gonna take awhile.

 

[Mini Horses]

There are hand shears for sheep, not motorized. If you are going to shear with scissors, you might want to look into those, instead.

 

[Baymule]

I just got a pair of hand shears to trim the Mohawk dreadlocks off my hair sheep. Haven’t used them yet, but they have to be better than scissors. @Ridgetop and her husband came to visit and she brought sheep shears and taught me how to use them. I had blisters from scissor cutting a ewe thick thatch of matted wool off. Incidentally I culled her and she went to auction.

It hasn’t been mentioned, but you may need to have a Veternarian operate to remove your rams testicals. As said, he may be sterile, but the hormones will still fog up his brains and he could become aggressive.

 

[Niele da Kine]

Aha! I have the sheep shears thing figured out! There's a local sheep and goat group which rents out shears to members. It's only $25 a year to belong to their group and $10 to rent the shears. They only rent the machine part of the shears, folks have to have their own blades, but they sell blades to members for $10. Ha! I signed up this morning, but it being a holiday it will probably take awhile before I'm an official member. Maybe I can rent the shears for shearing Flower. Cypress is almost sheared. It's pretty much a bucket of wool taken off of him while he's having his evening snack. He doesn't mind the cutting, but doesn't like having the cut off bits pulled off.

He's over two years old, wouldn't he have become aggressive by now if he was gonna? If anything he's gotten calmer and friendlier. He comes over, wags his tail and gets grasses poked at his nose. He's become my gardening buddy and he eats all the weeds as they're pulled out of the garden. Maybe he's just spoiled rotten and doesn't have any excuse to be aggressive?

 

[Ridgetop]

It hasn’t been mentioned, but you may need to have a Veternarian operate to remove your rams testicals. As said, he may be sterile, but the hormones will still fog up his brains and he could become aggressive.

Definitely have him surgically castrated. He should not have been sold as a pet with undescended testicles since he is still a ram although sterile. Some years ago the Australians tried sterilization without castration for a while. They pushed the testicles up into the rams body then banded the empty sac. The idea was that since ram lambs grow faster than wether lambs, they would decrease the time before the lambs could go to the processor. The internal body heat would cause the rams to be sterile while retaining quick ram growth. After several years they found that although the ram lambs became sterile, it did not take away the ram testosterone drive.

Although your ram is still docile when he reaches 3 years old he can become more aggressive. Particularly when the ewe is in estrus. He will also drive her crazy trying to breed her every time she cycles. She will continue to cycle every 18 to 21 days since he won't be able to settle her - being sterile. This doesn't mean that he will be so aggressive that he will attack you at al times. It just means that he might butt you when you don't expect it. A full grown ram butting you can break a leg. This usually happens with rams that are so friendly that you trust them, don't pay attention to what they are doing, and turn your back on them.
POW!!! OUCH!!!

You will burn up your A5 clipper motor trying to shear the sheep. The reason people get sheep shears is that they have a different head to take the blades The blades are not just bigger, the head of the clipper is more powerful. The lanolin in the sheep wool holds dirt and you need the power to cut through the heavy oil of the wool fleece.

Aha! I have the sheep shears thing figured out! There's a local sheep and goat group which rents out shears to members. It's only $25 a year to belong to their group and $10 to rent the shears. They only rent the machine part of the shears, folks have to have their own blades, but they sell blades to members for $10. Ha! I signed up this morning, but it being a holiday it will probably take awhile before I'm an official member. Maybe I can rent the shears for shearing Flower. Cypress is almost sheared. It's pretty much a bucket of wool taken off of him while he's having his evening snack. He doesn't mind the cutting, but doesn't like having the cut off bits pulled off.

I suggest you make friends with these sheep group members - shouldn't be hard - you are nice! and see if any of them is willing to either teach you how to use the clippers, or even better, would shear for you for a small price! As a member of this group you will make a lot of new sheep and goat friends too!