A Wooly Flock of the Awassi on Highway 65 (the Dead Sea Highway), Jordan.

            Bedouin and fellahin shepherds know nothing of tent or house but live entirely in the open together with the flocks under their care. They are working 365 days a year, from 13 to 16 hours a day. Their work includes shepherding, watching at night, care of sick animals, training of bell-wethers, shearing, weaning of lambs, and tying the ewes up for milking which is usually done by the women. Commonly, Awassi flocks of the Bedouin and fellahin are accompanied by rams throughout the year. Hence, a ewe in oestrus is served several times. Ewes coming in heat very early in the season may lamb when there is still a shortage of grazing before the rains. The number of ewes for each ram varies between 25 and 35 in Bedouin flocks, and between 40 and 50 in those belonging to fellahin.

During the lambing season, lambs born in the field and still too weak to follow their dams are carried by the shepherds to the tents or villages where they remain for a few days until strong enough to join their dams at pasture. The suckling period lasts for two to three months, depending on the state of the grazing, the time of birth, and the development of the lamb. After weaning, the lambs are put into separate flocks away from the ewes and have to subsist solely on the natural grazing. Milking com-mences when a sufficiently large num-ber of ewes have suckled their lambs for at least two months. During the first three or four months of the milk-ing season, the ewes are milked twice a day and during the following month only once a day until they dry off. As the Bedouin have no enclosures for milking, the ewes have to be milked in the open. The animals are placed in two rows along a long rope to which they are tied by their heads in opposite pairs. Neither Bedouin nor fellahin castrate male lambs. Only a very few destined to become bell-wethers leading the flock may be castrated, cither by biting through the spermatic cord or by tying a string tightly around the upper part of the scrotum.

In some parts of the breeding area, Awassi sheep are shorn once a year, in others twice. Shearing is usually done in a rough manner by hand shears or with simple scissors while the sheep are lying on the ground. Wounds caused by the shearers are common. A shearer may shear 20-30 animals a day. Often the wool is sold before shearing, by number and not by weight.

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Taken in: Jordan / Balqa / Ash Shūnah al Jadīdah (show map)

Taken on: October 17, 2018

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Camera: Sony ILCE-6000, f/5.0, 1/160 sec, 28mm (=42mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-6000
Lens:	E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	28mm (35mm equivalent: 42mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 7.2 (Windows)
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