What do you do with your sheep's wool?

We have 52 sheep with this year being our second lambing year. Our lambs are a East Freisian/Katahdin mix. The lambs from last year never lost their hair/wool (or is it fleece? I hope someone will please help me with the proper word ). We had them shorn (sheared?) and now we have a few piles of wool (fur? Just kidding...) sitting in the yard. I don't want to throw it away, but I have no idea what to do with it. It isn't a good quality for spinning. I have thought about using a small amount to insulate my bee hives this summer. I'm also wondering if it would make good mulch in the garden and around fruit trees. Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

I would appreciate suggestions.

Thanks, Laura

I've heard that it makes a fantastic mulch, but I don't know how people use it as such without making a huge mess. It seems like birds would scatter it everywhere trying to carry chunks of it off.

i have katahdins and this spring when i was pulling their loose wool off i put some of it in suet cages and hung them in the trees for the birds as nesting material and put some in the bottom of flower pots to cover the drain holes and as nitrogen for the plants. hope you find something to do with your piles of "stuff"

Fleeces from hair x wool crosses should be thrown out or at least not mixed with pure wool fleeces.

SheepGirl said:

Fleeces from hair x wool crosses should be thrown out or at least not mixed with pure wool fleeces.

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Does that just apply for spinning? It wouldn't make a difference for mulching or insulating would it?

Laura_P said:

Does that just apply for spinning? It wouldn't make a difference for mulching or insulating would it?

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I'm pretty sure that just applies if you're selling the wool. hair fibers devalue your clip.

I have dorper and dorper crosses that need a clip from time to time. I've just thrown the fiber (How's that for a generic term!) in the compost pile but the birds and other wild critters steal a lot of it. It is a good mulch for suppressing weeds and holding water. Our local wool grower's association has a buyer who will take the hair sheep wool but I haven't looked into the details other than that they want hair sheep wool separate from the all wool fleeces. I have heard that it can be used for felting if you do crafting.

Thanks for your feedback. I think I'll compost it and use some for mulch and insulation some for the beehives.

doxiemoxie said:

I have dorper and dorper crosses that need a clip from time to time. I've just thrown the fiber (How's that for a generic term!) in the compost pile but the birds and other wild critters steal a lot of it. It is a good mulch for suppressing weeds and holding water. Our local wool grower's association has a buyer who will take the hair sheep wool but I haven't looked into the details other than that they want hair sheep wool separate from the all wool fleeces. I have heard that it can be used for felting if you do crafting.

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@doxiemoxie
How do you felt wool/hair?
A neighbor of mine has hair sheep and she said I could have the extra hair if I wanted.
I'm thinking about getting a sheep (maybe from her, maybe a wool sheep), so I would like to know what to do with the fiber.
Additionally, (if I'm getting too far off topic here, someone, please let me know) my dogs shed pretty much year round, but we have clumps of dog fur all over our yard all spring and into summer. Could that be felted? I read about a woman spinning her dog's fur, just to see if it would work; she said it did, but she didn't do it after that.

http://www.howtofelt.com/how-to-felt-wool/
This is just a sample of what's out there on the internet... she also has an article about felting cat hair. I suspect you could easily do the same for dog hair. You'll have to let us know how it goes!