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This is a really long post because I’m going to show pictures and give a description of each fleece that is available. The fleeces this year are not all at their best because, due to lack of available shearers, the sheep were not shorn last year. This has resulted in longer than usual staple length. In some fleeces some tips are damaged or matted. Some of the fleeces are from last year’s lambs. These are in excellent condition.

Price is based on $15 per pound this year since some of this fleece will need a bit extra preparation work. Where I think there will be significant loss due to trimming or other wastage I have noted that and reduced the final price, I chose to leave it up to the spinner to decide whether to work a bit harder on some parts or let them go to mulch the tomatoes. Some of the fleeces won’t need extra work or have extra loss at all but I’m sticking with one price per pound for this year. There are at least 3 pictures of most fleeces , the tip side, the butt side and a close up. Except for Tommy the fleeces are identified by number. On the tag I’ve written the number, colour range, weight, staple length range and any important notes.

At this time I am willing to split most fleeces larger than 5lbs in half but I can’t guarantee which half you will get. The fleeces that have been discounted ought not be split as it would be difficult to evenly divide the best and less than optimal parts. To purchase send an email to elizabeth (at) purplehivebees (dot) ca letting me know the number(s) and full or half. Pickup would be in Manotick or by arrangement; it may take up to a week to get them from the farm as Steve is only coming to Ottawa about once a week at the moment. Shipping is possible but at buyer’s expense.

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This is Tommy’s fleece, he’s pictured in the post about shearing.

• SOLD
• very dark brown to black
• tips are strong
• should be easy to work with
• 6lbs = $90

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• light brown/cream
• tips are weak in some places
• 6-10″ staple
• 2lbs = $30

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• cream to light grey/tan
• tips matted, need to be trimmed
• 6-10″ staple
• 9.5lbs but I estimate 1/3 may be lost so $90

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• cream to mid grey
• good tips, a bit on the stronger side (not as fine as some of the others)
• 4-6″
• 10lbs = $150

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• SOLD
• mid brown
• super clean, little vm
• 3-6″ staple
• 4.5lbs = $67.50

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• cream and grey
• matted tips, straw infested, will need work and soaking
• 3-6″ staple
• 3lbs $15

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• cream to beige
• matted in places, tips need trimming, vm in places
• 4-8″ mostly, some 12″
• 8.75lbs = $75

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• cream, beige, tan
• some hairy bits, some nicely crimpy, tips may need trimming, mid range vm, this one isn’t as soft as most of the others
• 6-12″ staple
• 12lbs = $180

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• SOLD
• cream, parts look grey but may be dirt
• crimpy, low vm
• 4-6″ staple
• 7lbs = $105

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• light brown
• stronger, less crimpy, clean, a bit of matting but not much
• 6-12″ staple
• 7lbs = $105

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• cream, fawn
• clean, not matted, needs some tips trimmed
• 4-12″ staple
• 6lbs = $90

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• brown
• low vm, clean, parts are maybe a bit on the stronger side
• 6-10″ staple
• 9lbs = $135

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• cream, might have some very light grey
• mid vm, some crimpy and finer some a bit stronger
• 3-6″ staple
• 5lbs = $75

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• cream
• matted tips, will need trimming
• 6-12″ staple
• 8.75lbs = $90

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• brown
• very clean, crimpy, low vm
• 3-10″ staple
• 7.75lbs = $115

That’s all of them. Somehow there are 15 fleeces listed here, 1 went to compost and I kept one which makes 17, except we are pretty sure we sheared 16. I may have accidentally split one of the big ones in half by not keeping 2 bags together.

Lastly, there is honey. A lot of honey. To the point we ran out of jars. It’s lovely and mild this year, I have been using it for baking and in my coffee. We currently have 1kg ($15), 450g ($9) and we are trying to get some buckets to sell in 3kg quantities ($40). Email me if interested.

When the shearer says he is available you rather drop everything and go. My friend Claudia happened to be driveway visiting that day and so we both headed off to Steve’s to help.

Steve texted about 10:00 that morning that Ross, the shearer, would be coming in the afternoon. Claudia and I got ready to head off to help as shearing even such a small flock (16 adults needed shearing this year) is best done with several hands to help. It’s a 75min drive to Steve’s from my house in Manotick. The sheep were in the barn and we were lucky the threat of rain held off until we were done. You do not want to shear wet sheep, nor deal with wet fleece.

Ross got right to work, I got a few pictures but my phone decided that it was a good time to run low on battery so I didn’t get as many as I wanted. Here he is shearing the first sheep.

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Steve’s role was to help catch the next sheep and to keep others out of the way. Claudia helped deal with the temporary gates on the barns and carried the fleeces to me to be skirted. Skirting is removing parts of the fleece that are too dirty, short or matted to use. I hold an Ontario Handweavers and Spinners’ Master Spinner Certificate but I’ve been spoilt lately by prepared spinning fibre so it’s been a long time since I did this job. Let’s just say I could use more practice. In the few minutes it took Ross to shear each sheep I was only able to lay out the previous fleece, take off the obvious worst bits and roll and stuff it into a bag.

The thing to know about these particular fleeces is that Steve wasn’t able to schedule a shearer last year so they are at least 2 years worth of growth on the older animals. Some of the fleeces managed this better than others. There is a lot of lovely wool on this one

but also some parts that will probably have to have the tip ends cut off where they are matted. Because it’s 2 years of growth there will still be plenty of length left to work with. A few of the fleeces were the first shearing of last year’s lambs and they are in awesome shape.

Tommy was not overly impressed by the process. He has gorgeous dark brown to black fleece with a white splotch. His was one of two fleeces that I was able to keep track of which sheep it came from.

We sheared 16 of the 22 sheep. The other 6 are this year’s lambs so won’t be shorn until next year. One of the fleeces was, unfortunately, a total write off, I don’t know what that sheep did but the fleece was completely matted and didn’t seem worth trying to fight with. I scored the one fleece that isn’t Shetland. Bacon is a Rideau Arcott Ile de France cross, his fleece was filthy, and I had to cut off half of the length in places but what remained is gorgeous and it’s mine all mine. I’ll show you pictures of washing it another time, and then I’ll tell you my plans for it. That leaves 14 Shetland fleeces of varying sizes, colours and qualities. I spent an afternoon weighing, photographing and taking notes on each of them. Eventually I will get them posted here for your purchasing pleasure.

Purple Hive Bees is a joint venture of Steve Welch and Elizabeth Watt. Steve loves his bees and Ruis Dair Farm is well situated for beekeeping with little cropland but lots of wild food sources within a 5km radius. Elizabeth wanted to help and suggested they work together to expand the number of hives and market product. For right now there is honey. Lots of raw wildflower honey. Future products will include creamed honey, beeswax and handmade soap incorporating beeswax and honey. Steve also raises Shetland Sheep and Elizabeth is a handspinner. Shearing happened in July 2020 and there will be fleeces available shortly.

We are currently under construction, please excuse the mess.  When the dust settles (there does seem to be lot of it as Elizabeth learns to set up a website right before your eyes) we will use this blog to share about our adventures with the bees and Shetland Sheep and creating products from them.