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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