A New Ducking and Where Are All the Other Eggs?

I collect and sell duck eggs.  About a month go, I thought the ducks were in a lull of laying eggs.  I didn't find as many eggs.  Those creative ducks were hiding them from me.  They would lay them, then pile straw on top of them to hide them. Ducks won't sit on eggs until they have a full clutch.  I had no idea how many eggs they had.   I use the word they, because there were so many eggs it took two ducks to lay on all of them!  

The pink eggs are the peacock eggs.

The peahen has been laying eggs, too.  (By the way, I did scramble a peacock egg up for my teenage son, and he ate it fine.  Didn't notice anything different.)  One morning, I left a peacock egg to see if she would sit on it, and came back the next morning to find it was gone.  Hmmm.  These eggs are too big for a mouse to eat.  (There are definitely mice around.) What happened to it? I collect eggs every day.  It should have been here.  I am missing a few chicken eggs as well. What is happening to these eggs!

Today, I found out.  But, there is something else I discovered, too.  A new duckling!  One so far. I have no idea how many  will be born, but what I do know is that there are two of my ducks are sitting on a huge stock pile of eggs. There were a few chicken eggs, but also two peacock eggs!  Delta, the original hen duck, is probably rolling whatever egg she finds near the nest into the nest she is sharing with Denta, one of her ducklings from last year. (Denta has a dented wing, hence the name.  All our ducks' names start with "D".  There's Dexter the drake, Delta the original hen, then there is Dot, Dash, and Denta, all offspring of Dexter and Delta.) Not worried about the chicken eggs in their nest,  Since we have no rooster, it is highly unlikely there will be any chicks, but I expect many more ducklings.  How do the ducklings know which duck is their mama?  Will it  turn into a chapter from the children's book Are You My Mother? by PD Eastman? We will have to wait and see.
I'll take more pictures this week and post them as soon as I can.  More new life on The Derby Farm!

Sheep in a Shed Get Sheared!

We are starting to get some warm days here in beautiful Sonoma County.  The leaves are budding on the grape vines; gardens are getting planted. Next week promises sunny skies and 75. Wouldn't want to wear a wool sweater outside in perfect weather.  I didn't think the sheep would either, so why wait?  Time to get them sheared.
As a new farmer, I am learning to do many things myself: inject shots, give medicine, squirt de-wormer in their mouths. But, there is no way that I can shear by myself.  Time to bring in a professional. 

Taking it easy in the barn pen, not knowing what's coming.

To make things easier, I thought I'd corral the flock into the barn pen.  But, I should have locked them in the barn shed instead.  Once those ewes got a sight of the shearer and his large contraption, they went crazy!   Daphne was so scared she broke through the small gate to the pen, and the others, of course, started to run out to the pasture after her. Freedom! But not all of them made it out. We trapped them back into the barn pen, when Fiona tried to jump over the fence! Those girls can jump! It was a little too high for her, so she ended up ripping the fencing right off where it attaches to the barn shed. Oh, no! I was so embarrassed about the behavior of my sheep in front of the shearer.  What was I going to do?  He had to go to another farm after me, and my sheep were running for their lives!
I know!  I'll bribe them back in.  Sweet and delicious oats.  From out in the pasture, I know they heard me dishing it up into their buckets.  I gently called to them.  "Sheeeeeep!  Sheeeeeep!" When they hear that call, they know there is a treat coming.  It worked.  Got them back into the barn pen.  He quickly tied the gate closed, and I trapped Brownie and Adelaide in a jug in the barn shed.  Then, I lured a few others in, but the poor shearer who wanted this whole thing to be over, had to chase the other sheep in the barn.  He left his precious machine leaning against the side of the barn to help. He was worried that if they tipped over his electric shearing machine, they could break it.  To add to my further embarrassment, they proceeded to do just that. Over it went.  To my relief, once he started to shear, it did run. Whew!
Amazingly, the lambs stayed out of the way.  The littlest lamb got caught in the foray of the sheep running into the barn, but I easily picked it up and put it outside the barn with the other lambs. They did not like being separated from their mamas, and made enough noise to let us know that.  They probably sensed the tension from the ewes.  The ewes were to busy trying to get away from the shearer to even notice that the lambs were not around.  They remained quiet.

And, quiet they stayed as he grabbed each sheep around the neck, and plopped it over onto their back.  In that position, there is not much a sheep can do.  There is a little struggle.  He easily took the electric shaver and proceeded to shear off pounds of wool.  The wool on my sheep is not very good or useful wool.  The sheep are meant to be for meat not wool.  But, I kept the bags of sheared wool in hopes of finding something useful for them.  When you touch the wool, you can feel the lanolin in it.  Once it get cleaned up in very hot soapy water, there has to be something we can do it with it.

No! Not me! I like my coat!

Sheila, the sheep who survived the mastitis infection, was already loosing her wool.  She appeared rather mangy. (Infections can make even humans lose some of their hair.) I think she needed the clean up the most. Somehow, during the "Trying to Escape the Horrible Shear Master" episode, Sheila must have slammed her nose into something or someone, and got a bloody nose. And, as long as we had her flipped over onto her back, we got to spray her dying, stinking udder with a good dose of antiseptic.  So, she was hit doubly hard, because that stuff probably stings something fierce.  She really needed it though.

Once all the girls had their coats removed, it was time for the big guy.  The ram.  I had to get him from his back pasture to the barn.  Once I released the ewes from the barn, I had them graze out in the yard with the lambs.  This way, I had a chance to get Sean into the barn pen.  Bess had been in the back pasture with him, and followed me easily because of the bribe I held before her.  Sean, wasn't so convinced.   Sheep do follow each other, though, and he found his way, wanting some of the oats that she was getting.  Gotchya!  There was no way he was going into that barn, though.  We had him in the pen, at least. Chasing him around was no fun.  He wasn't go to tire easily, and the shearer was tiring of the situation.  He finally was able to grab Sean by the neck and guide him into the bar, and flipped over this massive sheep onto his back.  He has gotten quite big just grazing on pasture.  I have had to barely feed him any alfalfa. Once it really heats up around here, and the grasses started to brown, that will change.  In the mean time, the shearer said that the flock all look good and healthy!  We didn't bother to shear Bess.  He clipped her hooves, as he did the others, but after a look in her mouth, said that she really was only fit for the auction.
Below are s few before and after photos.  Brownie turned out to not be pregnant after all.  She is just fat, and had a t least 2 to 3 inches of wool on either side of her which made her look fatter.  So, it looks like there will be only 6 lambs this year on The Derby Farm.

Before and After of Brownie and Jackie

Before Sheila got sick and then before and after shearing