lamb creep feeder ideas

eorna

was looking at creep feeders for lambs..they are very expensive for something i normally wouldn't have use in a normal year..was thinking of setting something up to make sure the lambs get a bit of meal for a few weeks until grass growth finally meets demand (whenever that will be)..any ideas for home made feeders using wood/trailers/tarpolins that would work?? or am i wasting me time and will i be better biting the bullet and buying one:mad:??thanks

mf240

Turn a sheep ring feeder upside down and put trough in middle. If ewes can still get in put a ratchet strap all around at correct height.

eorna

thanks, that was in me mind alright..also was thinking of setting 2-3 troughs in the horse box, lower the ramp and put 1/2 of ring feeder upside down at gap so lamb can go in...

G-Man

The bother with a temporary one from wood is while it might withstand a lamb, it won't withstand a ewe who is hungry. Worse still it won't stop her getting into it but it will stop her getting out and she could end up doing damage to herself in there. The idea with the wide fully covered one too is to make it so that the crows are not tempted to go in easily.

If you must do it chape and home made, keep your eyese peeled at one of those black and gold spear home gate makers. They take in a lot of gates for scrap. He might mod one cheap, cut out every second bar and put in aheight limit on u. Bolts.and you could put it firmly in a corner somewhere. Then you still have to fix the trough, and covered as well to keep out. The rain. This just might be a cn@t of a yoke and could cost you impatience and time.

If you are handy, it does not take much to make, lengths of 30 mm box, sheets of galvanised flat and round 30 mm pipe for the pickets. Tek screw the sheeting to the box. Put some sort of slide up the middle where you can slide in a wood though from each end. Make it good and wide so it's comfortable for the bigger lamb and lams rears inside are not blocking others entering. I.e 4 ft wide is not enough with a trough up the middle. More like 5ft or more. If you have any ,lab on the roof, the you must have a fall from the middle or end or side. If you get one sheet complete then a flat roof is ok.

AntrimGlens

problem with creep feeders are that by the time the lambs have sussed it out and go in of their own free will the grass SHOULD be growing. Lambs will take at least a week to discover a creep feeder and for all of them to use it properly. like said before if its not a solid job you'll end up with a ewe getting stuck between bars or pulling it on top of herself and you'll end up with a dead ewe and two foster lambs which would cost you the price of a feeder. I'd advise feeding the ewes in troughs and letting the lambs get picking at the nuts and then place the feeder near the troughs and give the ewes a small drop of nuts to bring them over and scatter a few nuts inside the feeder and the lambs will investigate and hopefully learn from there.