Shearing Shed Details

 

Shearing Sheds need a pen to hold the sheep about to be shorn. This has a gate that swings both ways so that the shearer can enter the pen, catch and drag out a sheep while the door swings closed. The photo below shows the pen and doors in an abandoned shearing shed near to Opportunity Farm.

 

 

Our shed only needs to cater for a small number of sheep. Our pen can hold about five while more can be brought in through the door via a ramp at the back of the shed. The pen is constructed from materials from the abandoned shed. 

 

The floor of the pen is slatted which allows the urine and the excrement from the sheep to fall to the ground beneath the shed while being solid enough that the sheep don't get their hooves stuck in the gaps.

 

Once the sheep has been dragged out of the pen the floor of the shed where the shearer shears the sheep has to be smooth and solid to ensure that the fleece and other sections of what is shorn can be swept up and that the wool does not catch on rough surfaces. This floor has to be easily and regularly swept so I have used a variety of pine and hardwood tongue and groove flooring. It was not easy to put together as the grooves didn't match, the flooring was a variety of sizes and because the shed is not square the shape of each piece near the edge was unique. 

 

This is the board of our shed. A couple of the planks are darkened as they were rescued from a house that was badly damaged by fire and the flooring coated in soot and ash. Still it all has a new home and a new lease of life.