Fly Strike
Today I had the sheep crutched again and one sheep totally shorn. I had noticed some black patches of wool and suspected fly strike. It appears I was very lucky and caught it in time to save the two sheep - hopefully. I also spoke to the shearing contractor (a friendly and knowledgeable neighbour) about getting the sheep shorn in August. They are pretty booked up and I may have to be on standby and wait and see if they get a cancellation or if it rains and, because of our small number of sheep, I can shed the sheep and they'll be dry to shear, when others can't always do that. I wanted to leave the wool for as long as possible, as I would really like to spin Ebony's black wool, so the longer the better. If I leave it any longer than August there is a possibility of them getting fly struck again, so there is a fine line to tread.
After talking to the shearing contractor, I may change my mind and keep the little black faced girls and only kill/eat the boys (3 including the wether from last year). He commented that crossbreds are very good breeders. But if all 13 girls had lambs, that's 26+ sheep (including twins) - that's a lot of sheep!