Spring Shearing

Shearing is such a positive experience for me - especially when I don't have to do the actual shearing.  Stephen Franco came out last Saturday and did his magic.  He and his lovely wife were here about two hours and in the end I sold a couple of skeins of yarn and had sleek goats.

Shaggy goats waiting to be sheared - they hate the process but always look happier once they have been sheared.

The goats are shaggier than usual since we sheared very early last fall but still had to wait for reasonable temperatures this spring.  Several of the goats were nearly wool blind, others just looked heavy.

Now they are all sleek.  Nice mild temperatures would have been greatly appreciated but we've had several mornings in the 30's so the goats are still in the barn.

They have access to the goat pens and the area to the south of the barn but are all curled up together in a stall over night.

Fitz didn't get sheared, of course, since he is a short haired dairy goat but Bernadette seems happiest hiding behind him in case we might grab her again for some other horrible process.  As I said, they don't really like the process of getting sheared but all seem so much happier afterwards. We found several of them have lice so I've treated them all with an internal wormer.  I'll treat them all with a topical wormer in the next couple of days.  They should hold them for the summer.