I was doing a little housekeeping (gasp!) up in the wool room yesterday, and came across a bag of fleece that I’d forgotten I had.
Yep. That’s fall fleece from a yearling Edgar. And look at the color!
I’d almost forgotten how dark his fleece was when he was a young-un.
Here it is carded up, and side-by-side with a sample of his fleece from this past spring
Amazing how he’s faded out over the last 5 years, isn’t it?
I just figured that it was normal aging, and kind of like how the lighter color looks overdyed, so didn’t think a lot about it.
But check this out.
This is Edgar fleece this fall.
It looks like he’s regaining some of that lost color. Not reddish-brown like he was as a baby, but definitely brown.
I’m wondering if it might be a result of changing the mineral that I’m giving them, as I started that in probably February-March.
Hmmm….
That’s quite a recovery of color! Do you have other faded sheep who might confirm that it’s the new minerals? (And do you shear all your sheep twice a year?)
Thanks for the notification app!
Chone, my black sheep, has grayed some but the change wasn’t as dramatic as with Edgar. Griff, Edgar’s twin, had faded out perhaps even more by this spring, but then he passed away in late April. I don’t always shear in the Fall, but it was suggested to me that I might want to shear Dottie (Gotland X girl) because she might be prone to felting over the winter, so I did her (mostly), and then Edgar got jealous, so I had to humor him and shear him a bit too 🙂
I have found that copper intake influences the moorit color, not the black so much. Glad to see that Edgar is getting his color back!
thanks Donna. I’m glad to see it too. I think that the mineral is also helping hooves, but only time will tell.