Shearing the sheep

We have two flocks of sheep, the Ouessant (which come from the Isle of Ushant - or l'ile de ouessant in French) and the 'meat sheep' which is a mixed flock of various breeds. The Ouessant are quite hardy as I guess life is hard on a small windy cold island. The other sheep we have found to be more susceptible to worms and various setbacks. Last year we lost quite a few of them to fly strike which is a gross thing where a certain type of fly lays its eggs on an animal and the maggots hatch and eat the animal alive.

It is hard to avoid this all together, but you can improve the chances of it not happening by shearing the sheep and applying a treatment which is similar to sheep dip but in smaller quantities. Because of the horrible experience last year (in early July) we have gone with shearing super early this year and applying crovect (which is nasty nasty chemical but surely better than the sheep being eaten alive). We are a bit worried now that the poor things will freeze to death as the forecast is for freezing a few evenings this week. Hopefully they will huddle for warmth!

The nearest sheep here is this flocks only lamb, then behind her is her mum, then her dad. The black one is her half sister or something like that.

The pink on the black sheep below is the crovect. In the first picture she had not been sheared, in this one she has.
That black 'sheep' at the top right is not a sheep!
The little white one sniffing Doug's foot, we just sheared a bit round the bum (which is called dagging) as we were worried she would get too cold. She is a funny, bit pathetic (but really cute), little thing whose mum died last year in the horrible fly strike incident while the lamb was still quite young She seems a bit retarded but very friendly. We will shear her properly in about a month, but having dagged her should keep her bum clean from sheep poo and make the flies less likely to go for her.

We will do the Ouessant flock in a few weeks.