What are Lambing Jugs? Plus - Tips to Build Your Own
In just a few short months, we’ll be welcoming our next arrival of lambs on the farm. We lamb pretty early in the spring, usually March or April (although occasionally there is the odd ewe here and there that waits until May to lamb!).
We’re fortunate to have access to a 30x96’ hoop house, which is where our pregnant ewes and breeding rams stay all winter until the ewes are ready to lamb. It’s nice and warm and keeps everybody out of the elements so we don’t have to worry about inclement weather when the day for lambs arrives.
Last year, we built lambing jugs that would allow our lambs and ewes to bond after the lambing process had finished. My enterprising husband came up with a unique design for the jugs that meant the panels could be used for other purposes later on.
In addition to using our lambing jugs for lambing, we also used them to quarantine sick and injured sheep later on in the season. They’re great for trimming hooves and administering medication, as it makes it far easier to handle flighty sheep.
We also used them to make loading chutes when it was time to move the flock to new pastures and to load the market lambs into the stock trailer.
I’ll tell you all about how we built them in a little bit - and give you detailed plans to follow so you can make them for yourself - but in the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about lambing jugs.
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What Are Lambing Jugs?
Lambing jugs are simply small pens that are meant to house ewes and their lambs during and after lambing. Here are some of the benefits:
A jug is a small, separate space where a mother and her lambs can bond yet still remain close to the flock.
It keeps ewes and lambs isolated to facilitate bonding process and reduce “kidnapping” of freshly born lambs.
Jugs can be used for other purposes, like emergency quarantine, as well.
You can buy lambing jugs from most farm supply stores as well as build your own. Here’s an example of a commercial version:
Why Do You Need Lambing Jugs?
Using lambing jugs is the best way to strengthen the ewe-lamb connection while keeping everyone safe.
If you’ve ever lambed with a large flock of sheep before, you are probably already aware of the fact that other sheep can be downright nosy (and irritating to a laboring ewe!) during the lambing process and shortly after. Although we haven’t dealt with this before, I’ve also read about dry ewes or those that have lost their babies trying to “kidnap” freshly-born lambs from their mothers!
This is why giving everybody some space during lambing is so essential.
Also, you’ve got to remember that new lambs are tiny, sopping wet babies that have left a warm, nourishing environment for a harsh life outdoors. It needs to work hard to maintain its overall body temperature and to get some colostrum - those need to be its primary (and only) concerns. This can be stressful if it has a hard time keeping up with Mama as she ambles around the barn. A lambing jug can keep everyone confined during those so-important first few days.
Now, when it comes to lambing jugs, you have a few different options. You can use cut hog panels (or cattle panels) to create a temporary pen. You can also build separate stalls in a barn where lambs and ewes can go to rest.
For us, building panels out of wood made the most sense. We wanted a semi-permanent solution that could be used for other purposes, helping to justify its overall expense. The lambing jugs I’ll teach you how to make also can be disassembled and stored flat in separate segments, reducing a lot of the space and hassle that would otherwise be required.
How Many Lambing Jugs Should I Build?
Ideally, you should have one lambing jug for every seven to ten ewes in the flock. The closer in date your lambs are scheduled to be born, the more conservative I would be with that number - shoot for one jug for every seven ewes rather than every ten.
Your jugs should be around 4x4 feet but ideally larger.
You may hear talk of “nursery” pens as opposed to lambing jugs. Of course, you don’t necessarily need both lambing jugs and nursery pens. You can always use one system for both purposes provided that the pen is much larger, since they’ll be in there for much longer.
Some people also use mixing pens when it comes time to lamb, too. If you’re housing everyone in a smaller barn, I don’t think these are quite as necessary - particularly not for smaller (less than 100-head) sized flocks. The idea of a mixing pen is to get groups combined into more manageable groups as they leave the lambing shed. Again, probably not a necessity if you don’t have an extremely large flock.
Where to Buy Lambing Jugs
You can purchase lambing panels from some of the following websites:
Of course, you can always just buy cattle or hog panels and build a makeshift pen, too, if necessary, as a stop gap solution.
How to Build Your Own Lambing Jugs
We found that building our own lambing jugs was far easier (and less expensive) than trying to fabricate them out of hog panels or purchase premade ones from the store.
Here’s a link to our plans. You can use rough cut lumber and build these crates for less than $50. Here are some of the highlights:
Keeps ewes and lambs isolated to facilitate bonding process and reduce “kidnapping” of freshly born lambs
Ensure that lambs and ewes can be kept in a warm, dry environment prior to lambing
Made out of wood to lower overall expense
Panels can be disassembled and stored flat to save space
Jugs can be assembled in a matter of minutes, good for emergency quarantine of sick or injured sheep
Panels can be repurposed into loading chutes or other holding pens
Plans are easy to customize based on farm needs and required dimensions
Time to Build: 45 minutes
Total Approximate Cost: $50
Lambing Jugs vs. Grafting Crates
When you start researching lambing jugs, you might hear the term “grafting crates” used interchangeably.
They are more or less the same thing, although grafting technically refers to a different process. Grafting is the process of bonding ewes to lambs that are not their own (usually lambs that have been orphaned or rejected by their own mother).
A crate or jug can prove to be useful in this scenario as you will likely need to halter the ewe or otherwise restrain her to get the lamb to nurse.
How to Use Your Lambing Jugs
Whether you buy lambing jugs or build them according to the instructions above, I highly recommend that you choose a portable option.
The reason for this is that sheep can be unpredictable. It’s hard to tell where, exactly, an ewe will decide to lamb - and while we’ve always been able to usher an ewe and her lamb into a jug after lambing, it’s not a bad idea to have a system in place in case that is not possible.
You can set up your lambing jugs inside an existing barn, along a fenceline, or even along an outdoor wall or free-standing, if you trust in the weather conditions when you go to the lamb.
Otherwise, usher your ewe into the jug when she’s getting close, enticing her with fresh water, bedding, hay, and if necessary, grain. Monitor her while she’s in the jug and provide lambing assistance as needed.
After the lambs are born, you should leave the mother and her young in the jug for three or four days. We always wait until the lambs are a few days old so that we can also administer CDT vaccines, trim Mama’s hooves, and band males all at the same time, too. Otherwise, it can be a nightmare trying to chase them down.
What Other Equipment Do I Need for Lambing?
You may want to invest in some corner watering buckets.
Other than the lambing jugs mentioned above, you’ll probably want to shear your ewes at least two weeks prior to lambing. Whether you choose to just crutch them (shearing around their udders and reproductive organs) or fully shear them is up to you, but it’s a good idea from a management and sanitation standpoint.
Worming is also a good idea before lambing, but make sure the product you use is safe for pregnant ewes. The same goes for administering CDT boosters.
I also recommend having the following items on hand in case you need to assist with lambing as well as for caring for young lambs immediately after they are born:
Latex gloves/plastic breeder sleeves
Castration bands and banding gun (if you choose to do this)
Syringes and needles
Surgical scissors
Towels
OB lube
Colostrum, milk replacer, and bottles (just in case)
Feeding troughs - this is a good option and so is this one
Beyond that, everything you need for lambing is what you already hopefully have - an ewe with good motherly instincts.
Good luck, and happy lambing season! Be sure to check out this sheep maintenance checklist - and this recipe to treat sheep anemia (something that may come in handy during breeding and lambing season in particular!).
What has your lambing experience looked like so far? Let me know in the comments!
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