The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Red on February 29, 2016, 09:49:21 pm
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We are due to start lambing any day now & the weather looks like it's going to turn bad ... So I'm thinking of trying lambing jackets as we lamb outside ... Has anyone tried them & are they any good ?
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I put small dog coats on my pet lambs when they were cold, which doesn't help much I know.
I've seen supermarket carrier bags used to great effect: I'm trying to remember how it's done. I think you open the bag up down one side and put one handle around the neck with the other cut in two and tied uder the belly as a girth. I believe it can make all the difference, so proper ones must be worth a go!
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Now that interesting ... Haven't got enough dog coats for my girls so will try the coats I think there only about £15 for 100 ...
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I've heard of ewes ripping them off. But I think they look a great idea :)
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I have used on a set of twins born on a shitty night. It stopped the lambs shivering and I took them off 36 hours later. Mum did not seem bothered by them.
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Our neighbour uses them extensively as they tend to lamb early and his view is that it gives them some useful protection from wind/weather especially as we are on upland country. He leaves them on until they fall apart or rip off then cleans up afterwards. Seems to have real benefits as we have high rainfall and winds up to 50-60mph at times.
I did point out to him that using orange ones does make them look as though they're prepacked for Sainsbury's :D
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we had one little lamb needing a jacket earlier in the year , we just used a small dog coat and it worked a treat and didnt bother the ewe at all, but was a bit cold at the time to put them out.
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My ewes rip them off (black welsh mountain). I have a box of them sitting at the back of the cupboard now :(
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Little 'uns that are small, tired after a long birth or born on a bitterly cold night get a jacket made from a rectangle of old fleece or sweatshirt, with two holes at the front corners for the legs to go through. Makes a huge difference to survivability - would you rather get out of the swimming pool to be wrapped in a towel or have no towel....? I find the lamb needs to be put in one as soon as we or Mama has dried off the lamb as I think the ewe's instinct to mother is still strong enough to overcome that fact that her lamb smells of plastic, is orange and rustles when it walks.
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I have always lambed and kidden inside but on realy bad nights when it's been very cold or they've had a difficult time I have used small flectalon jackets that I bought in the 80's and will use. They're just small quilted jackets with flectalon in them , they slide over the head and have a Velcro belly strap. I got caught out with a ewe lambing outside on a very cold and frosty/snowy morning, brought them in (as I was off to work) put the jackets on . When I got back from work they were jumping around and 'toasty' inside. Wouldn't do without them :wave:
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We use the clear plastic jackets on thin-skinned lambs, especially if the weather is wet.
I've written up how to use them before, but to save searching I'll repeat.
I have had ewes attack lambs when I've used the orange ones, so we only buy the clear ones now.
I jacket the lamb slowly and carefully, while the ewe watches, and I make sure she's okay with it before leaving it, and/or jacketing her second lamb.
If the jacket is a little large for the lamb, it's best to cut an inch off the rear end. The ewe checks it's her lamb by sniffing its head and its bum, so make sure she can smell its anus.
Do not take the lamb out of sight of the ewe, jacket it and return it. There's a much higher likelihood of her rejecting it if you do this. She needs to be watching the lamb all the time. If the ewe will stay nearby, so much the better - if she'll stand close by, I let her keep sniffing the lamb as I slowly jacket it.
Needless to say, don't jacket the lamb until the ewe has licked it and bonded with it, unless you really have no choice. (Outdoor lambing, foul weather, no possibility of bringing the family indoors until dried and bonded.) If you have to jacket it within minutes of birth, it's better to dry it off as it won't dry underneath the jacket. I'd then rub some of the fluids over the top of the jacket, and be sure that the lamb's head and bum smell of birth fluids.
Even with this procedure, I still get the odd ewe won't take the lamb once it's jacketed. So don't leave until you are sure all is well. If she becomes aggressive with the lamb, you'll have to take the jacket off - bring them indoors until the weather improves, or you may have better luck with the jacket once she's had a bit more time with the lamb.
It's generally the more primitive or hill type that are more likely to have issues with jacketing their lambs.
I wrote a couple of years ago about my poor confused Manx ewe Dot Cotton, whose wee white (crossbred) boy I jacketed. It came towards her, she ran away from it. Then she'd say, "That's my lamb!" and run after it. But when it turned towards her, and rustled, she'd back away again. They kept this up for about half an hour, but eventually she let it suckle, and all was well. :relief:
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Thanks everyone really useful and we are now expecting heavy snow here in North Yorkshire so plastics jackets all round ... [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member] will pop out for clear jackets tomorrow not orange (& more gin for my hip flask!)
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Whereabouts in North Yorks are you Red? We're up on t'moors so snow is quite a problem for us too. Fortunately, I've got my pregnant girls in!
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I've seen my neighbour use them on his mule lambs, although it's very exposed and steep where we are.
Didn't even think about trying them on my Heb lambs due to:
(a) catching the little b*ggers in the first place, and
(b) having visions of coming back the next morning to see them parascending.
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I've seen my neighbour use them on his mule lambs, although it's very exposed and steep where we are. Didn't even think about trying them on my Heb lambs due to (a) catching the little b*ggers in the first place, and (b) having visions of coming back the next morning to see them parascending.
Please please try them. I would love to see the pictures of the paras ending Hebs. Preferably in red arrow formation.
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[member=26591]Hevxxx99[/member] were in Kildwick near Skipton ... It's bloody snowing right now! Will take pics if I use them esp if any take up parashooting hehe. Last years lambs are all snuggled up in one of the field shelters but the ewes are hankering down in the woods ... Fingers crossed we don't start lambing for a few days yet