Preparing for
shearing Day
Essentials Before We Arrive
Here is a detailed list of things to do before we arrive to ensure shearing day goes smoothly!
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First and foremost, please make sure your animals are penned up in a barn stall or small pen close to where we will be shearing. A one acre field does not count! Ideally, this is done the night before. Somehow they know it's shearing day and although they may come running for a bucket full of grain every other day, they seem not to fall for it on shearing day. There will be an automatic additional charge if they are not penned up prior to our arrival, even if they break loose! Your animals are smart, so make sure you outsmart them by having a sturdy pen set up. If you do not have a pen or stall and only have a few animals, individually haltering them and tying them to the fence works as well.
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For sheep - please pull all feed and water the night before. This helps them feel more comfortable during the shearing process. Imagine if you had to do pilates or yoga after a thanksgiving meal, doesn't sound comfortable does it?
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If weather is headed your way, please lock up your animals before the storm hits to keep them dry for us!
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​We will need a flat spot to shear on about 12x16, ideally covered if it is going to be sunny and warm. For alpacas, we will need access to two very sturdy anchor points for our ropes. This could be a fence post, support beam, or a heavy duty truck or tractor tire.
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If giving vaccines or oral dewormer, please have everything prepped and ready to go before we arrive.
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Have bags for fiber gathering ready. For sheep, it may just be one bag per sheep. For alpacas, you will generally need two bags per alpaca and several extra for the trash fiber (Thirds). Please make sure to have the bags labeled prior for 1st, 2nds and 3rds or a permanent marker handy to label as we go. If you are not keeping the fiber, please have bags ready anyways to put the fiber into so we can keep our work area clean.
Once we arrive...
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We will assess your set up and figure out where we are going to shear based off where the animals are. We can make pretty much anywhere work!
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Once we figure out the set-up, we will get everything we need set up and ready to go.
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We travel with a small generator that can be used if electricity isn't available. ​
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We bring all of our own equipment! For alpacas this includes a base mat, then our main mat we shear on, and our rope system. For sheep, this includes pens for larger flocks for us to shear out of. (#4 in the Gallery is a video to show our set up.)
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Things should be smooth sailing from then on as long as the animals are penned up for us. Generally we will need one person to gather fiber as it comes off the animal and another person to help get animals to and from the shearing station.
You're In Good Hands
We take a lot of pride in our efficient method of doing things, from start to finish. We want to ensure that when we leave you are completely satisfied with our work! Please reach out if you have any questions that are unanswered here. We are always happy to clarify specifics before we arrive. We greatly appreciate each and every single one of our clients. We love seeing new and old faces every shearing season!
