[SteveHants]

Not only that, but at 2-3 weeks old, most of the hard work has been done.  I generally either sell them at a few days old, or rear them to fat weight.  I guess if I had way too many one year I maybe would sell a batch that are established on the bottle-rack or multi-bucket - but I'd want quite a bit for them as I'd have done quite a bit of work to get them to that stage.

This - I don't know anybody who would sell after having put all the hard work in, just when they are starting to become a pleasure as opposed to a chore. If you can find somebody, expect to pay a lot more for them.

[Alicenz]

Hi Im in New Zealand and just joined .  I have noticed everyone talking about creep.  What is this? Here we have lamb pellets (higher protein than sheep pellets) and lamb muesli which smells and looks like muesli (soft) with mollasses on it.  Is creep similar?  And do you feed it with hay if there is not enough grass or the weather is bad to little lambs? The feeds mentioned above you can only give a small amount per lamb or sheep otherwise they would bloat. 

Graham, store lambs are alot less work!

[SallyintNorth]

Hi Alicenz .

'Creep' feed means food for young animals, such as you would feed in a creep area - where they can creep in but their mothers and other larger animals can't.  The feeds you describe sound like what we would call creep.

Generally it's pretty expensive, so you use it just when they are very young to tempt them into eating cake.  Then switch them to a less expensive feed.

Yes, we feed hay or haylage to sheep when the weather is bad or if they are indoors.  Some people never put their bottle-reared lambs on grass, saying that it causes them to bloat, scour, get diseased, etc.

And yes, store lambs are a heck of a lot less work - and less of them should die, too.

[graham-j]

Hi,yes if you see my original post you will notice I all ready buy in store lambs,,I have done this for three years now.
Last year I also bought in some ewe lambs ready to tup this autumn.I have just bought some more land,so am looking to expand my flock.I have spent all my savings on this land so now money is short.
I currently live on my holding,but I do work on it or around it full time,so am there most of the time.
Adding all the information above together I wondered if orphaned lambs could work for me,on my limited budget.
I'm thinking a slightly older lamb 2 or 3 weeks old would be better as I'm not there at night,I realize a lot of the hard work has been done by then so would obviously look to pay more than I would for day olds,but not as much as I would for stores.
Basically if I bought slightly older lambs what would I have to do every day eg how many feedings milk and creep.
What age would be the youngest I should consider bearing in mind I'm not there at night.

Thanks Graham.

[twizzel]

3 week old lambs would need 3 feeds per day roughly, 4 week old lambs 2 feeds, 5 week old 2 feeds of half the amount they have at 4 weeks, and 6 week old lambs just 1 half bottle in the evening with the aim of weaning at the end of 6 weeks latest. Or that's how we've always done it and it's worked for us. Creep topped up twice a day and then put out to grass.
Orphans aren't a cheap option though, each lamb will go through approx £25 of milk powder, say 1 1/2 bags of creep at £8.80 a bag, they need worming, heptavac etc. I worked out last year each lamb we reared cost us £65 including the £25 kill and cut, and we had a good year where nothing went too wrong.
Given that store prices are low at the moment as most people don't have much grass to finish them on, I would probably buy some more stores this year and rear a few orphans next year.
If money is short I would probably not have orphans this year, if you have too much land I would section it off and cut for hay. I think you would be pushed to find orphans for sale much older than 3 weeks as others have said, most of the hard work is done and they become a lot less labour intensive.

[graham-j]

Hi,thanks very much for the advice.I have found the advice rigt through this thread very helpfull.

Thanks Graham.

[Alicenz]

Good luck Graham, I am impressed with how helpful people are on this site, and so i dont interrupt the flow of this thread lll start a new one as i have a few questions.  Thanks all.

[graham-j]

Hi,yes I've got to say I have been very impressed with the help I have had from this site,not just on this thread but others.
It can be really hard to gain information on a new type of animal you keep.I bought my sheep from a local Sheppard originally knowingly paying a little over the odds,because of the offer of free help and advice,but that hasn't been very forthcoming.

So thanks again for all your help.

Graham.