**************
 |
Cherie Selles 692 E Stevenson Lake Clare, Michigan 48617 (989)386-7352 |
| Welcome to Orchard Hill Fleece
Farm. We are a small fiber farm located in the middle of Michigan's lower
peninsula featuring registered Icelandic sheep and the wool from them and our
other fiber animals.
Our Icelandic sheep provide us with wonderful lambs and beautiful wool. Here at Orchard Hill we are
breeding polled sheep with emphasis on high quality fleece. We
like the polled sheep with their ease of handling and gentle nature. We
don't have to watch out for horns which makes shearing and routine care
such as worming easier. We also do not have to contend with
"bad" horns that grow too close to the head and require
attention. Although we are small, special care has been taken to start
with very high quality animals. Update 2008: At this time I have down sized our farm to just a few of my favorite icelandic ewes and ram and have decided to take a break from the fiber end of the business. I need to be able to devote more time to my 4 kids age 3 to 15 years and between my full time job and my husband working out of state the animals and wool business were the first responsibility for me to let go. I still love icelandic sheep and their wool so I cant quite let go all of the way and am keeping a few around here on the farm. Feel free to check with me if you are interested in lambs as I plan on having a few each summer yet for sale. I will also still have too much wool to use myself and will post when I have fleeces available. I plan someday to build my flock back up to a dozen or so ewes and a couple ram but that may be a few years down the road. |
|
| We are also continuing with our small hampshire flock that our two boys are using to raise their own lambs for 4-h projects. This will be our second lambing with these girls. There is just a bit of difference between the icelandic and the hampshire breed - size and disposition and metabolism. It has been a fun experience adding them to our farm. I have also made a point to harvest quality hampshire wool from these girls. I must say that it is very nice wool. Although a bit dull it is very springy and softer then I would've expected and spins up into excellent sock yarn. I have had some beautiful blends with mohair made and this past years wool crop I had run into quilt batts and do have a couple extra for sale if you are interested. I have 5 girls that are bred to our hampshire/Suffolk cross ram and then I am very curious to see the results of the 4 other ewes that I have bred to my icelandic ram. My goal is to get foundation ewes that have the best qualities of both breeds - hopefully - calmer disposition and larger size of the hamps , but easier keepers and nicer wool of the icelandics. Hopefully these ewes crossed with a hampshire ram will produce a large quick growing market lamb that will work good for our boy's 4-h projects. | |
|
|
|
| We are a member of the
Icelandic Sheep Breeders Of North America (ISBONA), the Michigan Fiber
Festival and the Michigan Sheep Breeders Association. We are enrolled in
the Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program. Our flock code is MI36.
|
|
|
|
|