Thomas Boylan

“ To keep each bunch of ewes and lambs from mixing with another bunch; to have them in good shelter during any storm; to milk out ewes with large teats and suckle their lambs until they are able to take the teat themselves, are respectively the most important work for lambing hands. It will be well to keep the men reminded that they will do much, indeed, for you and the sheep by being "on the job" at all times. The sheep may need their attention any moment; they may mix at any time; coyotes are never all asleep ”

“ Most ewes, and especially two-year-olds, are very timid and easily frightened from their lambs when left out by themselves or in small bunches. For this and other reasons it is best to have few dogs upon a lambing ground, especially around the dropping ewes. If any, they should be in care of experienced men only, for whom they may head off a bad mix or find a lamb in a hole, etc. Inexperienced men never watch their dogs close enough, when the very best of dogs will scare many ewes from their lambs, even though they are not very near them. ”

“ Do not make the lamb red with blood, for the ewe may scare from it. Always put the hide on the smallest of the twins, leaving the best one with its own mother. The hide should be left on no longer than is necessary to make the ewe own the lamb, which is generally about 24 hours. In real warm weather, when flies give trouble, it may prove best not to bother with the hide method, but simply cut the entrails out of the dead lamb and rub them well all over the motherless lamb, so the ewe that had the dead lamb will take it from the scent. ”

“ They will always do their best to stray away from such surroundings. Sheep know the intelligent shepherd never whistles, hollos, or rushes the dog at them unless it is absolutely necessary, and they very readily mind such a person.
Surely it is not the sheep that is at fault when the shepherd selects as their pasture, during a stormy day, a bleak flat or mesa, where the sheep in their discontent are compelled to run around seeking shelter or to maintain their warmth, vexing the herder, causing him to dog them severely. ”

“ Where you have good feed and water, they will prove very successful. However, as ewes can and will suckle their lambs more readily while in small bands, the development of the lamb will be much more rapid where you are not compelled to bunch them too soon. Let these lamb bunches remain quiet as much as you possibly can. If your feed is poor around the water and the ewes have to leave their lambs to find feed, do not mix so soon nor so many. It may be advisable to move the droppers along a little faster, and by so doing you will leave more feed behind for the ewes with lambs. ”

“ When the lamb has enough life to take milk, suckle it just a little, not too much; repeat in an hour. When [Pg 37] the tongue of the lamb is still warm he will surely and quickly come to real life if you will kindly treat him as described. Place all such lambs in the best shelter, where they are out of the wind, and most of them will be with you when the storm is over. A little extra work at this time will always be greatly appreciated by every one concerned. ”

“ Each day he should have a sheep crook and some quarter-inch rope with him. The sheep should have salt or salt feed enough to be contented. Water them once a day during dry weather; on rainy days they will feed better when not given water. In bunch lambing, where the new-born lambs are with the dropping ewes all the time, 700 ewes are enough to the band, while if you lamb by the dropping system, where you part the new-born lambs and their mothers from the dropping ewes several times each 24 hours, you may have up to 4,000 ewes in the drop band. ”

“ True, when unintelligently selected surroundings compel you to howl, whistle, and dog it out of its natural contentment, it often becomes contrary, but this mood is forced upon it by its environs, of which the barking dog and the unintelligent and noisy shepherd are generally the greatest fault.
Allow sheep their natural contentment by leaving them to their own care whenever possible. They will then hold themselves to the herd and very seldom stray off. ”

“ Extra good mothers dropping their lambs near others at times become over-anxious and claim lambs belonging to other ewes, making it look like "twins or better." Do not be fooled, but single such ewes out with their lamb and put her stolen lamb or lambs with their right mothers. GET THE RIGHT MOTHERS. Keep your twinned ewes on good feed and water, also by themselves, if you expect them to raise you two good lambs. At least try not to put them in large bunches until they are at least 10 or 12 days old. ”

“ These lambs grow and put on flesh very rapidly upon the soft young grass of the early spring months, when their mothers give so much milk. Again, as most breeders use their oldest ewes or the ones that they know will need much extra feed and care through the winter months, for this lambing, there is another consolation in the fact that should such a ewe lose her lamb at lambing time, she, too, will have advantage of that soft green feed so essential to place old ewes in good marketable shape at shipping time. ”

“ Do not bed dropping ewes upon steep hillsides, where they will cast themselves during or before lambing. It may often become necessary to bed small bunches out by themselves; this gives the coyote a great chance to do his work. To keep him and other predatory animals away during the night, it is well to have firecrackers, fuse, or powder, scare-crows and lanterns on hand. To catch and chain a live coyote out upon the lambing ground has been the most effective scare-crow the writer has ever used to keep coyotes from the lambing range. ”

“ That all ewes with large udders are caught and milked out. Catch them without rushing them into a bunch of ewes and young lambs. If you can't, let them go until you can—watch for this opportunity. Tie or pen them up until the udder becomes normal and the lamb can get the teat without help. Many ewes having spoiled udders will come to [Pg 19] good milk in a few days, if milked out well two or three times daily.
When the ewe has a caked udder, or is troubled with what is commonly known as "blue bag," treat her at once—for she will die if you don't—by milking out what you can. ”

“ Although sheep will soon become used to the whistling and holloing shepherd, together with the barking dog, apparently paying little attention to them, they do, nevertheless, fret, causing them to roughen and lose in flesh. We have seen sheep become so thin by such treatment that they were actually too weak to follow the herd longer. ”

“ The ewes will generally bunch themselves by moving up around the tepee during the night. If they must be moved to shelter, or for other reasons, let the men start to move the oldest of the day's drop of lambs as soon as the droppers start back toward camp or water in the afternoon, always moving the oldest to the youngest when convenient to do so. Do not allow anyone to move lambs when wet or too young, unless it is necessary to put them into shelter. ”

“ Keep your lambs in shelter during severe storms by reading a good almanac and watching this table.
HERDING, DOGS AND FEED.
The good shepherd is not born every day. A quiet, unexcitable mental characteristic is the utmost necessity. Nervous, excitable people become too easily angered; they will wear themselves and the sheep out with over-work and abuse, while the overly sentimental person becomes too easily disheartened ”

“ Most deformed lambs, born with twisted legs, can be cured quickly by tying the deformed parts as near as possible in their natural position for a day or two. Lambs born with their eyelids too large may be cured by taking a pair of scissors or a sharp pocket knife and cutting a small slice or slit horizontally out of the abnormal eyelid, when they will shrink nearly to their normal size, allowing the lamb to open its eyes. ”

“ In most cases where the ewe has not had the opportunity of seeing or smelling her own lamb at birth, she will accept any NEWLY born lamb the same as she would her own without using either of the above methods. ”

“ Moving ewes and their lambs from one location to another often brings considerable loss to the owner. Where he [Pg 20] has long drives to get to his summer range, he is not only likely to lose many lambs, but will lose considerable in flesh. Lambs are parted too much from their mothers, and cannot get enough sleep while on the trail. The shepherd should do his utmost and use all the care possible to avoid dropping lambs behind, under brush, in holes, or otherwise. The best of men lose lambs while trailing from one part of the range to another ”

“ Warn the men never to try this; they never, or very seldom, can part them straight. In a mix of this kind—we trust there will not be any—by all means try to leave the ewes quiet; hold them still a few hours, not too close, so each ewe can single out her lamb and become contented. This gives other ewes a chance to find their lambs without running from one part of the range to another. When these mixed bunches are not rushed and pushed around they will likely straighten themselves out with as few "bums" as possible under such conditions. ”

“ We cannot say upon what exact date certain weather changes will take place, but do state the weather that is most likely to predominate during any of the moon's phases. When the new moon in any month comes in upon his back, these storms will be more severe than when it comes in standing up. The Indian had no powder horn. When the moon is moving from south to north it seldom fails to bring warmth, while it hardly ever fails to bring cold weather upon its return from the north. ”

“ We have used a knife in tailing lambs for years, but find they become a few pounds heavier during the summer season when seared, so advise the use of searing tongs to do the tailing. Keep these tongs red hot, so they will sear and stop all blood. To sear lambs, the docking corral is arranged the same as when you dock with the knife. You simply have an extra man, who places a stove or builds a fire to the right of the person doing the ear-marking and castrating. ”

“ Move them gently, so most of the ewes can tote their lambs along by their side. You will get along quite well this way, for the ewes will then not trouble you trying to run back to hunt lambs. Do not overheat or weaken your lambs by continual dogging. If you must drive them rapidly, use rattle cans. This noise will not only keep them on their feet, but will scare them along much faster than a barking dog that always turns your leaders back on you. Rattle cans will always startle young lambs out of the brush much quicker than any dog when it is necessary to move them. ”

“ It is indeed the height of folly to rush among them, causing them to run away from their new-born lambs in their excitement. Allow the dropping ewes to leave at their will; do not drive them off; all ewes that have not dropped will follow the herd if you will only give them time. Should a few [Pg 8] ewes take their lambs and try to follow the herd, let them go a few hundred yards before you try to cut them back. Should there be one or two granny ewes trying to steal lambs, leave them, rather than rush among the others. ”

“ The patience which enables you to endure the inclemency of any surrounding for their welfare, is also necessary, [Pg 2] for it, too, prevents that hostile, or we might say hideous mood of mind which causes so many people to abuse live stock when it is absolutely uncalled for. ”

“ After being worked this way for eight or ten nights, all ewes not in extra good condition, together with those heavy with twins, will become very weak; many of them will dry up in milk and become unable to raise a lamb. A much better system is to partition the dropping ewes off with panels each night when they come into the shed, allowing about 150 to each compartment or lot. Thus there will be but few lambs to care for in each lot in the morning ”

“ When the ewe comes in while the sign is at Aries or Taurus, and the ram is not given until the second day, the ram will strongly predominate the sex. This is also especially true where the ram is a little the oldest and in a somewhat better physical condition.
Close attention shows us this law of nature very clearly, yet we have much to learn regarding it. ”

“ To the sides are fastened gunny sacks to hold feed for each ewe. On top at center is an 8-inch walking board, over which the attendants may pass without disturbing dropping ewes in other parts of the shed. To clean the water trough when it becomes dirty there is an endless 1⁄4-inch rope passing through the trough and over the pens ”