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Author Topic: shepherdess feeders  (Read 8569 times)

Jamie12

  • Joined Nov 2013
shepherdess feeders
« on: April 11, 2015, 10:07:58 pm »
Can you get a smaller cheaper version of these?.

Mrs prolapse lambed, no difficulties and lambs fine. But she won't look at them, clean them etc. Tried haltering her to allow the lambs to feed, ewe still continually tries butting and lashing out, even butting the hurdle after I penned them next door to keep them safe. I had considered buying a shepherdess type feeder, but not looking to spend hundreds on a feeder either.

Rest of the lambed ewes are doing fabulous :thumbsup:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2015, 01:21:50 am »
You would only consider a shepherdess for a large number of lambs, surely?

Firstly it wouldn't be cost-effective for 2-3 lambs, and secondly I can't quite get my head around how it would work when it's only being required to deliver say a gallon of milk over a 24 hour period.

However, I've never used one, so perhaps those who have will be able to make more intelligent and constructive comment!

I shall watch with interest; we knew we would end up with a significant number of pet lambs this year and I am already on 16, with only one of those looking likely to die.  There will be more yet, and the oldest batch are only 3-4 weeks old (and I like to wean no earlier than 6 weeks, preferably at about 7 weeks), so I am pondering mass-delivery systems and possibly a single cluster milking machine for the Jerseys.

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2015, 01:22:58 am »
Getting back to you and your pair, Jamie, what is the reason you wouldn't just feed them by bottle by hand?
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2015, 02:12:03 am »
When I had goats first time round, I was out at work most of the day.
I can't remember why but I needed a feeding system, (I'm trying to remember, maybe the 2 lambs I bought)
Anyway there is a system where the teats are connected to plastic tube with non return valves, pulling milk from any container.
 you could have as many as you wanted and fasten to a strip of plastic, which I think I had screwed to sturdy mesh.
 
I'm sure I've seen something similar online? may have been Volac?

mowhaugh

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Scottish Borders
    • Facebook
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2015, 08:02:41 am »
I am a huge fan of the Shepherdess, (although this year I only have one running, and not for good reasons), but don't put one up until I have 4 larger or 5 smaller lambs to use it, otherwise the milk goes nasty unless you keep changing it and the bucket, teats, tubes etc which is wasteful and harder work than bottles.  With 4 to 10 lambs using one, I top up twice a day and change and disinfect everything once a day.

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2015, 08:38:41 am »
I have been fostering 4 lambs for a friend. Firstly I had 2 and that was no problem feeding them at the same time. I could just about manage them together when there were 3 but when the fourth arrived it was getting tricky so Oh made me a rack to put the bottles in. I make up the bottles with warm Lamlac and then just put the bottles into the slots and away they go.
You do need to be there to put the bottles in, so unlike a shepherdess, but it must be the next best thing.
I have a pic but it's too big to put on here
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Deere

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Peak District
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2015, 08:51:30 am »
I have to agree that they are a big spend for just one or two lambs but if you can't be there to regularly feed younger lambs then it does come down to animal welfare.

I've been and bought one this year and I've got four lambs on it so far (local farmers who don't want the bottle feeding) even before I start lambing my own at the end of the month.

It gets topped up in the morning and an empty and good wash out before being refilled late afternoon.

If you don't mind spending some cash and wasting some milk if you can't be there, then it's the better system for the lambs.

There was a chap selling home made versions on eBay which consisted of a cool box as the outer bucket and a square ish bucket, fish tank heater, teats etc all fitted as the shepherdess has.
Pedigree Ryelands, Charolais cross Mules

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2015, 09:47:13 am »
If you can, try and persevere with getting the lambs to suck. It will help the ewe and the lambs, especially since she had a prolapse. It sometimes takes a wee while before they get the idea. By all means top the lambs up if they are hungry but don't give up too soon.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2015, 09:50:47 am »
Use a Ewe 2. Its ok - the lambs do very well, it occurs to me that with two buckets a tropical fish tank heater a one way valve and some silicone bar tap tube you could make your own

mowhaugh

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Scottish Borders
    • Facebook
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2015, 10:53:48 am »
it occurs to me that with two buckets a tropical fish tank heater a one way valve and some silicone bar tap tube you could make your own

Absolutely, that is exactly how the first Shepherdess was made, and more or less exactly what it still is.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2015, 11:19:39 am »
Oh made me a rack to put the bottles in. I make up the bottles with warm Lamlac and then just put the bottles into the slots and away they go.
You do need to be there to put the bottles in, so unlike a shepherdess, but it must be the next best thing.
I have a pic but it's too big to put on here

I use a rack.  These are readily available at agri merchants and IMO worth their weight in gold.

The pic is from last year.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2015, 11:27:34 am »
I like the rack better than the multi-teat buckets because you can be certain that each lamb gets its ration.  However, swapping bottles in the rack for the next 4, washing and/or refilling bottles, becomes a lot of work once there are more than a couple of batches on the the rack.  It's great for up to 6, though.  (4 on the rack and one bottle in each hand.  I've been known to do 7, with one bottle between my knees!)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Hellybee

  • Joined Feb 2010
    • www.blaengwawrponies.co.uk
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2015, 12:40:18 pm »
Got six on bucket, but I m going to be looking for red rack today too, it's somewhere in the chaos we call home.  Got 4 on bottle in house and a few top ups.  Marked up all they're dams to go.   with two I'd stick with bottles, bucket. 

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2015, 05:40:22 pm »
I have to agree that they are a big spend for just one or two lambs but if you can't be there to regularly feed younger lambs then it does come down to animal welfare.

Not sure this stacks up for me.  They can't go straight onto the shepherdess on day 1 or day 2, can they?  They need to be trained?

It's really only the first couple of days when there needs to not be long times between feeds, so you would have to do this anyway as they wouldn't yet be trained to help themselves.

After that, they'll be fine with 4 feeds.  If you live on site but work away during the day, you can do this with a feed when you get up and a top-up smaller feed before you leave; a feed when you get home and a top-up feed when you go to bed.  Not perfect, but they'll do fine.

If you are lambing then you are going to be on site several times during the course of a day, so there's not a problem.  If you are not lambing then you won't be getting these very vulnerable neonates that need feeding  every few hours...
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

emmski

  • Joined Apr 2015
  • Preston, Lancashire
  • Shepherdess in Preston
Re: shepherdess feeders
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2015, 06:11:40 pm »
You would need to train them on the bottle prior but in relation to the ewe2 machine mentioned above...
you can buy just the line and teat plate as a 'replacement' part for approximatly £20 I just feed the line into a bucket (you could do a bucket within a bucket of water then its a tropical fish heater if you want it warm). The plate just needs attaching up on to the side of the pen
Small starter flock of NE mules and Texel - Contract lambing and sheep work - Interested in Zwartbles and Rouges for future flock plans....

 

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