Uses for dag end fleeces

The price of wool here has hit rock bottom - so much that some people locally are just burying their fleeces - the wool board are paying nothing!  I was lucky enough to be given some of the dag ends from the local fleeces that the Skye Weavers are going to use to make their lovely cloth.  These are the dirty edges and poor quality lengths that won't be of use to them for their spinning.

I have two builders bags that our new puppy Della is showing an interest in here. We have covered the bag on the left because the dogs were climbing in and pulling it out ("Mmm! Sheep poo, my favourite!")
I'm open to suggestions here.
I was thinking of useing some of them as is just around some of my trees and shrubs to keep the grass down a bit.  I have a little bracken that I pulled earlier in the year that I was thinking of layering in a pile and trying to make some potting compost - any tips on poportions would be helpful.  Any other good uses for dirty fleece?

The weather looks great up there in Skye, Nancy.  Greetings from Wales.

In Ireland they mix dag end fleece with bracken and leave it to compost.  It makes really acidic compost which is perfect for blueberries and cranberries and other acid-loving plants. I did this on a very small scale with one fleece at my old house and the plants seemed to like it.  

A few years ago, the price paid for fleeces here fell below the cost of sheering. Now, I see old fleeces left in fields so maybe the wool board is not buying here either.  I will ask my neighbour farmers.

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:The weather looks great up there in Skye, Nancy.  Greetings from Wales.

Hello Sarah, A nice day again today, but it's been pretty showery this week, you can tell it's summer - the rain is warm ;-)

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:In Ireland they mix dag end fleece with bracken and leave it to compost.  It makes really acidic compost which is perfect for blueberries and cranberries and other acid-loving plants. I did this on a very small scale with one fleece at my old house and the plants seemed to like it.  

That's one of the things I was thinking of trying.  I've used some of  Dalefoot compost the last few years and it's great. I only cut a little bit of bracken this year though. I think the trees wil shade it out soon, so it was a job I didn't need to do.  I could pull some more I suppose, but it is getting a bit late.  I'll have to work out proportions.

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:A few years ago, the price paid for fleeces here fell below the cost of sheering. Now, I see old fleeces left in fields so maybe the wool board is not buying here either.  I will ask my neighbour farmers.

I think it's been below cost for a while, But they are apparently literally being paid £0 per fleece (The Weavers at least gave them something, and it's local!)  I'll have to look again at the feasibility of DIY sheep wool insulation for next year!

Nancy Reading wrote: I think it's been below cost for a while, But they are apparently literally being paid £0 per fleece (The Weavers at least gave them something, and it's local!)  I'll have to look again at the feasibility of DIY sheep wool insulation for next year!

£0 per fleece is shocking.  So glad artisans are keeping some of this alive. I got a copy of Sheep and Man by M.L. Ryder for my birthday this year.  When I have a moment  I will have a look to see if there are other historic used for dag ends.

Yes,  DIY sheep wool insulation.  I'd go for that too.  

We are surrounded here by what used to be the "fulling mills" ie where they used the power of the water coming off the mountains to hydraulically clean the local wool by pounding it with cold water.  I found this interesting as I did not know that using warm or hot water would spoil the wool and/or lose the natural oils.  Perhaps a modified version of this could clean the dag ends.

Fun fact: I recently discovered that Vitamin D supplements are often made from the Vitamin D extracted from the lanolin in sheep's wool.      

I know they are dirty.

It seems such a shame for them to go to waste. Though that is a lot to try to compost.

Putting a layer under cardboard to smother weeds might work.

Piling woodchips on top of them might make some nice soil.

Would that work for using in a chicken house?

I keep thinking maybe wash them and use this for batting or insulation, etc.

Anne,
I've got quite a few newish trees and shrubs so I think I'll use a bit of it for mulching.  The sheep poo won't do any harm to the soil.
I don't keep chickens.  I used to say our first dog would love those ....briefly (!)  Actualy I'd prefer ducks, but we've steered clear of livcestock so far.
I'm wondering whether to try making some felt?  I'm thinking hanging basket liners might be good.

Nancy Reading wrote:I'm wondering whether to try making some felt?  I'm thinking hanging basket liners might be good.

There's talk of felting it and using it as batting in quilts over in the fiber arts forum.

I really like the idea of using it for insulation - some much insulation is toxic or non-renewable and so many fleeces are going to waste.

Jay Angler wrote:There's talk of felting it and using it as batting in quilts over in the fiber arts forum.  

I'll have a look over there thanks!

OK, so having done a bit more research, and having had a little look again in the top of the bags, I’ve decided to start by sorting the fleece bits.
One bag will be for really nice bits that, although not good enough for the weavers, will be plenty good enough for me to play with, teach myself to spin and maybe do some knitting with (I can knit). I’ll put that fleece to one side to be washed ASAP.
The second bag will be the bits and pieces that seem pretty clean, but are a bit bitty to imagine making anything much with.  I’ll maybe have a go at felting with this. I really love the vegetarian fleece idea, but I also need some slippers, wonder if the wool would make a good hat or overcoat. I may be able to have a go at making a batt towards wool insulation for the house, or a dog bed for our puppy Della (she’s going to be a big girl...)
The third will be the really dirty bottom end bits, bits of bracken and tree that have caught in the fleeces, and any other really short second cuts.
Depending on what I find in the bags, and what proportion the different categories end up in, I’ll maybe split these up a bit more.
Thanks everyone to pushing me a bit to make more use of of this resource.

I had a go at sorting the first bag today. Yuk!
My hands feel really soft now I've washed them though.
In the end it was difficult to decide between good and second quality. I decided to just sort into good and bad for the moment.  There were some obvious pooey bits, and quite a bit of felted bits, including several entire fleeces. I decided not to bother trying to get good fibre from them.  My time to play will be a bit limited for a while, so I just used them to mulch round a couple of my monkey puzzle seedlings in their entirety.
I just love the range of colours - not a white fleece in there.  I spent a while trying to think what some of them reminded me of before it came to me - the Wombles! They have that springy white tipped look about them. I’ll take a few pictures tomorrow to show the colours.
I’ve put all the good fleeces in to soak overnight in cold stream water and will have a go at rinsing tomorrow.  I think it could take some time. I probably have a ratio of 1 good to 2 bad by volume, so will end up with nearly a ton bag full of good fleece all being well. That should keep me out of trouble for a while. I probably should have sorted into different colours, but it was simpler to just make one bag rather than find and keep separate several bags whilst fending off dog ‘help’.

I have the same with alpaca seconds. I left some in stalls for bedding. I have nesting birds who line their nests with alpaca--hows that foir style. Might prove good for warm chicken nests, too. How about felted chicken nest liners???. I didn't like it as mulch b/c it gets into everytthing. We are too dry for ferns, but I might leave layers of various thickness in the floodplain area and cover them with sticks and see what happens (if we get any rain )

So some pictures as promised:

We have a couple of builder's buckets that came with our digger.  One is split a bit more than half way up, but the 'good' fleeces I had sorted, fit nicely in the good one. Picture of two large tubs ready for fleeces, bags of fleeces overflowing, with polytunnel, weeds and 'fruit jungle' in background.


I was expecting the water to be brown with mud and poo, but it actually was quite grey, which was a surprise. Picture of fleeces in builder's bucket with dirty grey water.


I fished the fleeces out of the first tub and into the second, emptied the dirty water out (I used it to water the polytunnel, since it probably has a bit of nutrient value) and started to refill the first bucket with water.  Our water is all from the burn (stream), so is untreated, and plentiful. I took the fleeces out of the second bucket again, left them to drain a little on an upturned plastic basket before putting them into the clean water again. It was taking some time to do all this, so I started selecting some of the bits of fleece to rinse in a smaller bucket.  About 4 or 5 changes was enough to make the water almost clean.  These fleeces I put on my potting bench in the polytunnel to dry. Picture of clean grey and orange wool piled on plastic bench in polytunnel, fern growing in background.


I didn't have enough time yesterday to rinse the bulk of the fleeces in the builders bucket (The midges came down at about 6pm and made life a misery, and I needed to get back down to the shop to close up) so I buried the end of the hose in the bottom of the tub and allowed  the water to flow gently overnight and through today.  Stirring the fleeces around this evening, they seem to be pretty clean, or at least no more water soluble dirt is coming out.
I feel this will be a better, or at least more gentle way of rinsing the fleeces, albeit rather extravagant on water if that were an issue. I'm not sure how the fleeces will respond to the handling that I have given them putting them in one tub, then another and stirring the water round. I guess I'll find out once the fleeces have dried again and I have a go at carding. I think I will just rinse the other bag of fleeces this way rather than transferring them from one bucket to another. I'll just give them a gentle shake occasionally and let the water run through them.

The colours in the fleeces are gorgeous. Picture of close view of clean orange, brown, grey mixed fleeces.

I hope I can get some useable yarn from this eventually.  I'm thinking just naturally variegated from one fleece to another at random....

This is one of the entire fleeces that I found.  Rather matted, it is probably a hebridean sheep.  My neighbour has some with this rusty coloured fleece. Picture of orange fleece spread out on concrete. Puppy inspecting at rear


Although there was no more colour coming out in the water, some of the fleeces have a waxy layer in them.  I don't know whether it will be a problem when processing the wool. At the moment I'm ignoring it, and am thinking that I will wash the wool properly, once I have processed it a bit. Picture shows dark coloured wet fleece with white specks thoughout surface layer.

Finally got round to getting the fleeces out of the bucket where they have been sitting in (clean) water.  I made some hammocks from some old netting that we found lying round the place when we bought it, and managed to hang them from the polytunnel crop bars in a bit of free vertical space.  They tended to sag a bit, so I reinforced the edges with poles.
We're getting a lovely spell of dry weather that looks to continue into next week, so I should be able to get the other bag of fleeces sorted and washed pretty quickly now I have a technique.  I don't know how long they will take to dry in the tunnel.   Hopefuly the birds that go in the tunnel to eat the brambles won't shit on the fleece too much.

Nancy, my first concern with using it as mulch is that root-chewing rodents would love it. It would make a nice warm layer for them to be under and the wool would not collapse in on itself so the rodents could have many tunnels. At my own place, the trees that I mulched with straw and rotten hay got hammered by rodents compared to the tree that got woodchips for mulch.

In my area I don't seem to have too much trouble with rodent damage to trees when they have been mulched - I have used newspaper and hay, or grass clippings with no particular problems. I tend to use a vole guard or cut down pop bottle as a trunk protector for the trees that the voles like best (they definately have preferences for some trees over others).
The jury's still out on the effectiveness of sheepwool mulching. I had mulched a couple of the monkey puzzle seedlings in the tree field, however it is the dogs that have been a nuisance there. One of the mats they don't seem to have disturbed, the other has been played with and the fleece scattered far and wide.  The tree shelter had also been removed. Luckily the seedling doesn't seem to have been damaged.  I suspect it may just be novelty, so I will carry on with mulching some moreof the seedlings. As I put the fleece down, I did feel that it wasn't going to be thick enough to stop the grass growing back through, so I think it does need a layer of card or paper underneath to knock back the grass.

Picture with flattened grass, scattered fleece and puppy, stick marking location of seedling tree.

Update on progress with the better bits of fleeces:
The first lot is all washed and nearly dry, The second bag is sorted (I was a bit more ruthless with selecting the 'good' fleece, since I seem to have so much), and I've put the selected fleece on to rinse though with the hose running off burn (stream) water as before.

I brought a box into the house to start playing with carding and spinning.  Note I am a complete beginner at this - the last time I picked up a drop spindle I was about 12 years old (I wonder whether my Mum still has it...) Luckily I have a pair of hand carders hanging round that I was using years ago to try and do something with nettle fibre (byut that's another story). I did a little research on handcarding - watched a few videos and then just had a go. Seems to be going well so far, but this could be a lengthy process!


A bit of the raw fleece. I started with some of the greyish fleece. It is greyer and more multicoloured in the raw state than this shows on my screen.


Fleece loaded onto first carder


Carding in process


Box of completed 'rolags'.

I think I will try and keep the different coiour rolags separate at this stage.  I don't know how the different fleeces from the different sheep breeds will spin up, I'm guessing the yarn could end up naturally quite different weights, so may be difficult to use for the same projects.

I need to do a bit of research on felting to see if much can be done with the more tangley bits of fleece that are at present in the reject pile.

No sign of my Mum`s drop spindle yet, but since the rolags have been building up I decided to try making my own. Inspired byR Ranson`s thread on DIY spindles, and some videos on youtube, I made one from a twig, some old CDs an elastic band and a hook. My mum says potatoes can make a good weight too.
So far so good. I have started with some of the more crinkly fleece in a soft grey, and it`s going pretty well for a first effort. I`ll have to work out how to make it into yarn - 2 strands together- soon. In the meantime there is also lots of long straighter wool, and all the different colours. I may have to make a few spindles. Why didn`t I keep more CD`s?

I still have a bit of fleece that hasn't ended up as mulch. It had been drying in a hammock in the polytunnel (what's left of the tunnel after the plastic tore apart anyhow). I brought the fleece in and it was hanging on my washing airer in the kitchen for a few days. Most of it will probably be used for stuffing dog beds.
I did have a go at felting, but to be honest didn't find that very satisfiing. I prepared a bit, gave it 10 mins rubbing with hot water and soap and....nothing. It didn't seem to felt any worse than it was to start with.  I may try again, since I still have quite a bit of clean fleece to play with, but I much preferred the gratification of getting yarn by hand spinning...
Anyhoo - fleece and empty old dog bed

Old dog cushion and cleaned, dry fleece

Really well stuffed cushion

Ready for action

Within half an hour both dogs tried it out and seem to approve.

Dyson (Labrador retriever) on new bed

Della (Mastiff pup) on new bed

I've got a couple more old dog cushions that have lost their polyester filling over the years, so after checking for holes (so the stuffing doen't get pulled straight back out again. I think I can make three good cushions again and give Dyson's aging bones some comfort.

Yup- contrary to common belief, not all fleeces felt easily. 10 minutes my be enough to get the party started, with some wool types, but it's nothing, with others. But, I'm so glad you found such an awesome purpose for yours!!

Lovely work, Nancy.

We have the same dog bed at our house.  Your wool stuffing is a great idea.  Will keep that in mind for when the bed (or the dog) gets older. We get our organic meat delivery sent to us with sheeps' wool insulation.  I currently use it for the chickens' nest boxes but the dog bed idea is a winner.  

Is that an antler on the bed in the second picture?  For a minute I thought one of your dogs might have been smoking a pipe.

Sarah Elizabeth wrote: We get our organic meat delivery sent to us with sheeps' wool insulation.  I currently use it for the chickens' nest boxes ...

Brilliant - do the chickens seem to prefer it over other options, or have you ever tested for that? I don't have sheeps' wool, but I've got a big bag of dog fur from my friend's standard poodle.

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:
Is that an antler on the bed in the second picture?  For a minute I thought one of your dogs might have been smoking a pipe.

Thanks Sarah Elizabeth,
Ha ha! It does look a bit like a pipe but yes, it's the nub that's left from Della's "chew antler". It was a full 3 prong antler when she was little and she has worn it down over the last 6 months. They are relatively safe chew toys, they last well, the dogs like them, and being horn rather than bone they don't make hard splinters that the dogs can swallow and hurt themselves with. When they're bigger they can be a bit...prongy for bouncy dogs, but could be cut in half to make them safer if necessary. This one I found up on the hill (the deer shed them every year). I have another really old one spare, but Della hasn't needed that.

I saw someone on here (can't find the thread now) that used those wool batts with their chilled delivery to insulate their shed. Good idea since they have moisture barriers on already!

Jay Angler wrote: Brilliant - do the chickens seem to prefer it over other options, or have you ever tested for that? I don't have sheeps' wool, but I've got a big bag of dog fur from my friend's standard poodle.

The only other nest box liner I have tried is dried chopped hay and they seem to prefer the sheeps' wool. Maybe it is softer on the rear end..

The wool box liner comes in thick sheets and I just cut it to size for each box.  They always shred it and make a big loose pile so on the same principle, your bag of poodle fur might work really well.  Love to hear how it goes if you try it.

Nancy Reading wrote: It does look a bit like a pipe but yes, it's the nub that's left from Della's "chew antler". It was a full 3 prong antler when she was little and she has worn it down over the last 6 months. They are relatively safe chew toys, they last well, the dogs like them, and being horn rather than bone they don't make hard splinters that the dogs can swallow and hurt themselves with. When they're bigger they can be a bit...prongy for bouncy dogs, but could be cut in half to make them safer if necessary. This one I found up on the hill (the deer shed them every year). I have another really old one spare, but Della hasn't needed that.

Interesting.  We've not tried the antler before so thanks for the info.  You are very lucky in Skye to have deer up on the hills.  In Wales, sadly they are now rarely seen, even here in the Cambrian mountains.  There were many more in Sussex..

Nancy Reading wrote:I saw someone on here (can't find the thread now) that used those wool batts with their chilled delivery to insulate their shed. Good idea since they have moisture barriers on already!

What a great idea. The versatility of wool is so inspiring.  

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:

The wool box liner comes in thick sheets and I just cut it to size for each box.  They always shred it and make a big loose pile so on the same principle, your bag of poodle fur might work really well.  Love to hear how it goes if you try it.

The Experiment

I chose two of our portable shelters that both had 3 seater hanging nest boxes in them:
The "C-team": I refreshed the shavings in the right nest box, put dog fur in the middle box, and left their favorite left nest box alone.
The "Aug-team": I left the right nest box alone, refreshed the shavings in the middle nest box, and put dog fur in the the left nest box which is their favorite.

Why are the left nest boxes always favorites? It's closest to the wall? Chicken logic?

I will keep you updated!

Day 1

Total rejection! All three locations! Obviously mostly male dog fur is far scarier than sheep wool, but that makes sense since dogs are omnivores and sheep are herbivores.

In the two layer boxes, I caught a random hen and set them in on top of the fur. They turned around and hopped out, but we'll see this morning whether that was enough to change the group consensus!

Day 2

Progress!

The "C-team": One egg was laid in amongst the fur. Normally they were laying 3 eggs in that box, but a step in the right direction.
The "Aug-team":  Sneaky girls! They laid a bunch of eggs - at least 6 - but they pushed the fur to the front of the nest box and laid behind it.

Considering I *know* that even Industrial chickens will form a bit of a nest if they've got suitable material to do so, I'm not counting this as a success yet, as I'm not seeing any sign of the fur being nest material. I have seen both dog-fur and human hair incorporated/lining wild bird nests on my land, so I know it can be used that way if the bird is so inclined.

I think we're still in the "it's new and different" stage, so I will continue to update as I see changes.

Day 3 and 4

I'd say that the chickens are "tolerating" the dog fur, but they sure aren't appreciative of it. I'm not at the point of yanking it out, but I suspect the chickens will drag it out a bit at a time until it's gone. They've made no real effort to incorporate it into a nest which they will do with soft hay, and even the shavings usually end up at least as a ridge with a round gully in the middle.

So the bottom line is - poodle fur doesn't make the cut on my farm! The weird things we learn from chickens!

Jay Angler wrote:They've made no real effort to incorporate it into a nest which they will do with soft hay, and even the shavings usually end up at least as a ridge with a round gully in the middle.

So the bottom line is - poodle fur doesn't make the cut on my farm! The weird things we learn from chickens!

Your study is really interesting even if the poodle fur is now out of the picture.  That's a great idea to try different nest materials side by side.  Like you, I find there is a favourite nest box.  Mine always tends to be the most south-east orientated nest box which I've read chickens prefer.  My informal research certainly bears that out.      

The sheeps' wool in my nest boxes was replaced three days ago and since then, there has not been a lot of nest building activity although they have made pulled some of it apart and made a hollow in each box.  Their nest building has never been as sophisticated as your chickens.  Maybe this is because they were incubator chicks.

It's been a stressful week for the chickens (and us) as our fields flooded in the storms this week and their run was inundated with water and it is too boggy to move the mobile coop.  

Hope you're OK on Skye, Nancy, with all this wind and rain..

     

The poodle fur is most definitely out of the picture. I'd left it, rather than removing it, because I was waiting for Hubby to chip/shred some tree branches. Two days ago, I took a bucket of the chippings up, removed the dog fur, and put the chippings in. The next day, the use of the ex-dog-fur box had noticeably increased. The birds prefer some sort of soft hay, but it's very pricey due to weather related shortages, and the wood chips do the job. That's why I wanted to try the experiment - just on the off chance it would be deemed acceptable! Alas not!