MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 255 



"bum" lambs, lambs that have lost their mothers or been deserted 

 by them, and are "bumming" or stealing their living off other 

 ewes. 



The principal part of this system consists of a little pen 

 known as a "bummer" or "bum" pen. It should be built of lum- 

 ber (1 ft. by 4 ft. stuff being very good) and should be just large 

 enough to hold one ewe and her young lamb. About 3^/2 feet long 

 by 20 inches to 2 feet wide is a general size. It should be about 

 eight inches to one foot longer than the ewe and just narrow 

 enough to prevent the ewe from turning around in it. The lamb 

 is thus better enabled to suck in spite of the mother's protestations 

 after he is several days old. 



When a ewe refuses to own her lamb, or loses it from any 

 cause, she is put into one of these "bum" pens with her lamb, or 

 in case she has lost her own lamb with a twin lamb from another 

 ewe or with any motherless lamb that happens to show up. Of 

 course the attendant must see that the lamb sucks night and morn- 

 ing, and before the ewe is turned out to graze she and the lamb 

 must be given a number, the number to be. painted on the ewe's 

 side, preferably with black paint, and on the lamb's side also. The 

 first "bum" ewe of the season is marked No. 1, the second No. 2, 

 and so on, numbering them consecutively as they come. 



In cases where a large number of ewes are being lambed and 

 the feed is dry, tending to make a great many disown their lambs, 

 it is sometimes necessary to number all the "bum" pens, and then 

 when a ewe is put into it she and the lamb are given the same 

 number as the pen. This enables the attendant after catching a 

 "bum" ewe to readily see to what pen she belongs and thereby 

 saves time when there are a great many to catch every evening. 

 But where the same man is attending to the "bums" regularly, 

 in case he hasn't over thirty head, he should be able to keep them 

 straight without' numbering the pens. After the ewe and "bum" 

 lamb become reconciled they are turned out and the next "bum" 

 pair that shows up must be put in the same pen that the other one 

 was just turned out of. Of course if the pen is numbered the sec- 

 ond ewe and lamb must be numbered the same as the pen, and 

 consequently the same number as the first ewe and lamb bore. 

 Now, for example, we will say that a ewe and lamb numbered 24 

 have been turned out of pen No. 24 this morning. This evening 

 we put another "bum" ewe and lamb in -pen No. 24 and conse- 

 quently number them 24. Tomorrow morning or later this ewe 

 has owned her lamb, so we turn her out with it, thereby having two 

 ewes and lambs numbered 24 turned out in the lamb herd. In 

 three or four days we find one of these No. 24 lambs in the lamb 

 herd deserted again by his mother and going hungry. We must 

 hunt out his mother and put her back in the pen with him, and 



