Rooing — plucking the locks from sheep by hand (the sheep also shed their fleece). The natural shedding is a characteristic of primitive sheep, and the best way to remove fleece from Boreray.
This is also a good shot of the impact of barbed wire on my jacket. I’ve started my “mindful mending as you can see on the shoulder.
On my second visit to Jane Cooper, and her Boreray sheep, I managed to stay on my feet, and had a chance to photograph, hand feed some extraordinary rams, and do a tiny bit of rooing of one of the young females with lovely, fine fleece (and not a lot of hair in the coat). I’m not sure that Louise (?) was all that happy with that level of attention, but we didn’t hold her for long.
I learned a thing or two — like the direction you pull as you pluck matters to how easily the fleece comes away, and it’s really easy to tell whether the lock is ready to shed or not. I was, if anything, perhaps a little too cautious, not wanting to cause it to hurt.
The sheep that already had been rooed looked quite naked, with their pink skin showing through, and a fine down of hair left behind as at least some protection (it’s still fairly cold in the Orkneys at this point).
Not all of the fleece comes off at one time, and Jane has to sometimes resort to clipping to obtain useable fleece. If you wait too long, it becomes matted and impacted with too much lanolin, making it virtually impossible to clean.
There are quite a few sheep that have had to be bottle-fed over the years, and even the most skittish and stand-offish of them come running right over when the feed bucket is rattled. Having 3 of us in the field made them pretty nervous, but the lure of goodies overcame enough shyness for most of them to make it over to eat. There was even a bit of head-butting with the older rams to express a little dominance at the trough, but it didn’t seem terribly serious. Still, it makes quite a noise when they crack into one another.
There were many things to see in Orkney. Both Kirkwell and Stromness are charming, and I found many things that needed to be photographed.
Since I either spent my time in archives or with sheep, there isn’t a ton of things to say at this point, but I thought you’d enjoy a little eye candy.
So until the next time, stay calm, breathe deeply, and craft on.