# Keeping wool sheep cleaning...or cleaning once they are filthy!



## madness

Shearing is sneaking up on us fast and we are going to have a pro do it for the first time. I'd like to try myself, but for now I want to see and assist someone else. And it's made me think of how dirty our sheep are. I remember reading on here awhile ago about a lamb getting a bath before a show or something. It was a pretty fuzzy critter (not shorn) and I guess I have to admit to having no idea about "bathing" sheep!

So how do you go about keeping sheep clean(ish) in the first place? Their necks are FULL of hay bits from the manger. I figure that's not the best quality wool anyway. But they are also just kind dirty all over. They rotate pasture and have some woods to run in and we feed hay at various times year round. So maybe I just can't win there.

Once they are dirty...do you bother cleaning the sheep or do you wait until the fleece is off and clean that? And just toss the really bad parts (as in, we didn't crutch before lambing...certainly doing it next year!)? We have contemplated sending the fleeces to a mill nearby for the first time - I'm assuming they will do all the cleanup there - maybe an extra fee for really dirty ones?


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## LibertyWool

Some people will coat their sheep. This can be good or bad depending on whom you ask. Some will say it is good for the fleece, some will say it is bad for the fleece. Some will say it is bad for the sheep's health. I don't coat mine.

After you have the sheared fleece, you have to skirt it. This is where you will remove any the bad parts (belly wool, head wool, dung tags, muddy parts, parts full of (VM) vegetable matter). The cleaner the fleece the better your yarn will be. What is left is sent off and washed to remove the dirt and lanolin. 

Washing of sheep is generally only done with sheep that have been shorn and don't have much fiber (like market lambs where you want to show off the muscle). When showing fiber animals, they don't wash the sheep. The lanolin sheep produce makes them fairly water proof. When raw wool is washed, it is at 140 degrees to melt the lanolin away. If you did wash them, then how would you dry them? Your shearer would also not be too happy, as the lanolin helps to lubricate the shears.


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## Maura

the shearer will not shear the sheep if they are damp. I don't have a barn, so my shearing has to be done with the weather in mind. The lanolin also helps to heal wounds, like the little nicks your sheep might get while being shorn, or other boo boos.
When the wool mill cleans the fleece, they first put it through an air blower which gets rid of most of the veg matter.


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## Slev

I use Rocky Sheep Suits. Most people who DON'T like covers is because if left on too long, the sheep might rub and this can cause the wool to dry felt a little. Resolve: so shear them already, that's why you're protecting the wool to begin with...


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## madness

Whew, so I don't need to somehow get the sheep in the bathtub! 

I've contemplated the coats - especially because we have some dark wool and I'd like the color to not fade out (coats help with that right?). BUT, when it's 110F here and they need to be keeping their wool to get ready for the winter, I can't imagine them having coats on...


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## sheepish

We don't keep our sheep really clean, but one thing we do to make the sheared wool cleaner is not shear until the sheep have been on pasture for a few weeks. A lot of the vegetable matter seems to drop out that way.


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