Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-07-29
LAMB CREEP,

The frame can be made Of light iron or :
by 8 scantling. The two posts (P) each
have a hook top and bottom for hanging the
wire netting on, making it convenient for
moving. The netting should be thirty inches
high. The posts are hoped with iron at the
top and cased at the bottom. The creeps (A)
are twenty-four inches high and are shown in
the engraving to be of disproportionate width
between the rollers, which should be set from
six to eight or ten inches apart according to
the breed. The rollers (R) turn on iron spikes,
or inch gas pipe answers the purpose If prop
erly set so as to allow of revolution. Or these
uprights may be made stationary. The slide
through which the rollers or uprights pass is
adjustable, so that 1t can be set to the height
of the lambs and fixed there by iron pins. Tho
end of the slide should be thin plate iron
which can be easily moved up and down in the
Sits in the posts.
When you want to bring out a lot of
early am or wether lambs for the fall
or Christmas shows no time should be
lost. An Enclosure of hurdles with
troughs and feed inside and creep in the
center of the fold should at once be
erected in the field, so that the lambs
may go through at will to feed on crush
ed cake, peas or oats, and when satisfied
return outside and steal a drink of their
mothers milk, or the system 1 work on
myself is, l think, still preferable-feed-
ing the lambs three times a day, giving
them only what they will consume for
the time being.
Lambs are very dainty in their eating;
the least offensive smell seems at once to
disgust them. In the first place they
should have feed troughs specially for
themselves. These should be about six
feet long, the bottom six inches wide
and the sides not more than two inches
in height; they should be raised about
four inches from the ground and a round
pole should u along the top of the
trough from end to the other to pre-
vent the lambs from jumping from one
side of the feed box to the other, which
they continually keep doing, dropping
dirt from their feet in the trough and
wasting much feed. The pole must be
sufficiently high from the trough so as
not to interfere with the lamb reaching
the feed,
prefer a fiat bottomed feed box to a
V-shaped one. Lambs like their feed
in troughs SO formed, I presume, because
they do not blow on the food when
spread on a fiat surface nearly so much
as when placed deep in a narrow space.
Feed little at a time is the great secret.
Let the shepherd stand by while the
lambs are eating and as they clean their
dish add a handful more. BY such
handling it is astonishing the quantity
of grub you can coax them to stuff into
their little stomachs, and it is marvellous
how lambs develop under such treat
ment.
The shepherd should when the lambs
are eating take particular notice Of the
gross feeders-the big constitutional
sorts-for these are the ones he has to
depend on for winning honors in the
show arena. He should also stamp on
his memory the ewes that have produced
the best lambs, so that he may bestow
on them every care to reproduce to ad-
vantage.
l take care that lambs under my
charge wake up every morning to a lib
eral feed Of cake and oats, and at night
they receive the same before resting
their heads on the pillow. What con-
tented children a hearty supper makes
theml Not a whisper is heard till
breakfast hour the following day. In
the morning I no sooner enter the
feeding fold than there is a general rush
rs to. which of the lambs will pass first
through the creep. What more beauti-
full sight a there be than a lot of fine
thrifty lambs crowding around the feed
boxes crunching cake and corn. What
music there is in that crunchl-William
Watson in Breeders Gazette.