Lambing jugs

[Heather]

This thread may already have been created but after looking at recent posts I would love to see pictures of everyones lambing jugs. This is our second year. The first year was a giant flop for us because we only had our two older girls(who were 2.5 years old) and lost a set of stillborn twins as well as lost a single live lamb to what I now think was pneumonia. We currently have 5 ewes and one ram on 2-3 acres(plus our 7 lambs). 3 ewes have lambed leaving 2 still to lamb. So far we have only lost one SMALL lamb that wasn't fully developed. We have access to plenty of other areas as my family has two farms that we run registered black angus cattle on. I would love to leave our sheep here at our house because we enjoy watching/raising them close to home. We have a shed for shelter and plan on adding one more this spring. I will grab pictures of my set up when I go feed my "kids" later.

 

[Parsnip]

AH I just took my lambing area down!
Otherwise I'd take pictures haha.

 

[Heather]

just a picture of sheep. they love to run to the gate and meet me for dinner.

side view of the sheep shed. The large door area is open all year except this winter we located a semi trailer tarp for free and hung it up to block snow and wind. Worked out well since it has been very snowy and windy/cold. It is also sided with reclaimed barn metal from a project at our cattle farm. Free is GOOD! We will paint this spring/summer.

Another view. This door is actually a tube gate but we may add a door that would close in the winter to keep draft out.

Lambing jug. It is free from wind and we were able to secure electric cords so we could provide heat and water to the ewe while she is in the jug.

Our herd sire Chest. Not really sure on his breed as we were told that he was part Dorper but to me he looks like a blackbelly.

 

[Parsnip]

WHOA what a handsome ram!
He kind of has the body build of a Dorper, but the coloring of a blackbelly.
But then again, those "badger" markings can come out of Katahdins who hadn't been crossed with BBs.

Absolutely love the ram.

Your place looks DRY too haha I'm kind of jealous
Our field looks like a marsh land right now, SO MUCH WATER.

 

[Heather]

Thank you! My husband just had to have him as soon as he saw him even though we were not in the market for a new ram. I am VERY glad we got him now because he is obviously the father to all the lambs born this year.
Dont let the pictures fool you. It is a muddy mess here. The water does tend to dry up after a few day but it is awful this year.

 

[Parsnip]

It will be exciting to see how the lambs grow up.
Are you keeping any of the lambs this year?

SPEAKING OF RAMS.
This just popped into my head, but I might be getting a Dorper cross ram for breeding in April.
I've been talking to this older local-ish guy and I think I'm going to visit and take a looksie at the ram.
The ram is quite decently priced... very well priced, so I should look over the ram and ask about his history.
The ram has a son on site, so I'll get a glimpse of his offspring as well.
I might use him for Fall breeding too, it'd be a shame to use him once and then never again.
It's not possible for us to Winter a ram because of lack of space in our barn, SO he'd probably be Christmas dinner this year, but we'll see. Or might be a good ram for some other flock.
He's a good looking ram and I'm excited to see him in person. (WOW I'm rambling sorry)

Do you still have snow?

 

[Heather]

I would like to keep a couple of the ewes but i am not sure with our space. We will keep a ram or two for butcher because the price of lamb chops at our local store is 21.99lb! If we had to buy our meat we wouldnt eat it as much as we do! I wouldnt mind at all if our ram was mixed with dorper because I read where they are fast growers.
We keep our ram with our girls at all times. He doesnt seem to mind the babies, us or our kids. He is pretty laid back. Should we not let him run with ours? I am not sure how quickly they will re-breed after lambing.
We do not have any snow on the ground now but the temps are dropping again and they are calling to more snow this weekend. March3rd-ish

 

[purplequeenvt]

I would like to keep a couple of the ewes but i am not sure with our space. We will keep a ram or two for butcher because the price of lamb chops at our local store is 21.99lb! If we had to buy our meat we wouldnt eat it as much as we do! I wouldnt mind at all if our ram was mixed with dorper because I read where they are fast growers.
We keep our ram with our girls at all times. He doesnt seem to mind the babies, us or our kids. He is pretty laid back. Should we not let him run with ours? I am not sure how quickly they will re-breed after lambing.
We do not have any snow on the ground now but the temps are dropping again and they are calling to more snow this weekend. March3rd-ish

Same here! We would be close to vegetarian if we didn't raise our own critters.

What breed do you have? If you have seasonal breeders then keeping the ram in all the time shouldn't be an issue. If your sheep can breed all year round then you will probably want to keep them separate.

Space is always the issue, isn't it? We have 7+ acres (with access to another 20 or so) and 3 secure paddocks with sheds. This year I'd like to change things around and add another 3 small sheds to have a total of 6 sheds and 7 paddocks (one shed would be divided and shared between two paddocks). You can never have enough paddocks. We have 2 purebred breeds and then a few crossbred production ewes and we might be adding Southdowns this fall when my friend heads off to vet school in Scotland so it would be nice to have more penning options.

These are the jug panels that we use.

They are built from strapping and are 3' tall and 4' long, I believe. I'm having a rough time with them this year because I have so few left from last year. They got used for other things during the summer and most got destroyed. I had enough panels to make 3 jugs. Hopefully I won't need more than that.

My "birthing suite" is set up with 3 jugs, a creep (access to the creep is from outside the birthing area), and an larger area in front of the jugs. Newborn lambs go into the jug for a couple days and then are released into the larger area. After a couple more days, they are released into the main barn and now they have access to the creep which acts as a "safe area".

 

[Heather]

We have 3 katahdin cross and 2 Hampshire Suffolk cross. What would happen if they are year round breeders? We leave our bull with our cows all year round. We just know to expect babies year round. They will re breed about 2-3 months after calving. Wouldn't it be the same idea for sheep?

 

[Parsnip]

I am fairly sure that I have all year 'round hair sheep.
Or two of them at least.
Those two ewes are in heat right now, so I'm HOPING to get a ram for them by April

Lamb IS so expensive at the store!!!
Pork isn't cheap either haha. GOOD THING I DID 4-H
We also have some beef in the freezer from a friend. Ox tail soup is seriously the best.

I know some people who keep their ram with the ewes all year and there don't seem to be many problems.
Except for maybe unexpected babies!
I like to plan and plan ahead, so I'm going to ( try ) to separate them until it's a good time to me.

Anyway, I'm rambling and lost my train of thought haha