CHAPTER VI 

 LAMBS FROM BIRTH UNTIL WEANED 



In Chapter VI the discussion dwells upon the follow- 

 ing: (i)The season when lambs should come; (2) The 

 care of the dams when nearing parturition ; (3) Special 

 care at the lambing season ; (4) Giving aid to the dams 

 in labor ; (5) Giving aid to the young lambs ; (6) Reviving 

 lambs that may have been chilled; (7) Managing ewes 

 that do not own their lambs ; (8) Rearing lambs by hand ; 

 (9) Supplemental food for lambs; (10) Food suitable for 

 young lambs; (11) The lamb creep; (12) Weaning lambs, 

 and how it is done; (13) The proper food for lambs when 

 weaned; (14) Castrating lambs; (15) Docking lambs; 

 (16) The registration of pure bred lambs; and (17) Mis- 

 cellaneous considerations. 



When lambs should come — The best season for lambs 

 to come is determined by such influences as the market 

 for which they are grown, the shelter that has been pro- 

 vided, and to some extent by the breeding habit in the 

 sheep. Of these influences the first is by far the most 

 important, as, if sheep, and more particularly lambs, are 

 not adapted to the conditions of the market for which 

 they have been grown, they soon become a drug in the 

 hands of the owner. To have young lambs at a season 

 when the weather is cold in the absence of provision to 

 properly protect them would be to court disaster to the 

 lamb crop. Some breeds of sheep, not many, however, 

 drop their lambs in the autumn, and others in the spring. 

 The attempt to modify such habit, when this may be de- 

 sired, cannot be quickly done (see p. 243). Lambs in- 

 tended for the winter market, usually spoken of as hot- 

 house or milk lambs, should come after the hot weather 

 is over in summer and before lambs come for the spring 

 market. They should be sold, as a rule, after the winter 



93 



