When the sheep head up to the pasture Brutus the cat, Jigger the dog and the ducks go too. It is a daily event.
Three ducks have been around for a couple of years. The female in the front is the mother of the bad gang of six. born last August. She had a tough time of it. Had a clutch, then one by one all of the ducklings vanished. We discovered a weasel. She then laid a second clutch and had about a dozen. Mostly males we later found out, so over the winter we had a couple for dinner.
We slacked off and have 6 of last years ducks left, 2 females and 4 brothers. They have matured and one female is on the nest most of the time with her own batch of eggs. We expect ducklings any time now.
One of the changes is that the younger ducks have been picking on our original 3. They have run them off to the neighbor’s pond. The original three are friendly and we miss seeing them around the house.
Tonight as I brought the flock up to pasture, the males from younger group began chasing off the three older ones. Time to put an end to this. Too many males. The 4 brothers gotta go. There really isn’t a market for mature males.
This weekend we will add the 4 drakes to the dinner menu. The females will remain and any ducklings will hopefully be sold at our local farm store. A buck a duck. Seems like a fair price.
Ducks are used here at the farm for parasite management. They hang out with the sheep and eat a ton of bugs that would otherwise cause harm to the flock. But a large group of young males is loud. I have been closing the window at night. The males make a horrible noise of aggressive quacking, normally at first light around 4:30 am.
On a different note, tonight is the first night that the sheep will be up in the pasture all night and back down in the morning. We have been easing them onto pasture. Most have done well, except for Ohio Dawn who is the most tummy sensitive sheep I have. She is getting a bit better now, but the new grass didn’t agree with her too well at first.
The fence is made electric by a solar run battery. We bought it last summer and it was swell. I stored it over the winter and it hasn’t charged up correctly this spring. So back to the company that made it and hopefully it will come back fixed quickly.
The first few times the sheep head up to the pasture in the spring, I would keep the fence off so that babies who don’t quite get the gate opening are able to get in without being zapped. Sheep will mind a fence if there is plenty of grass, so for the most part, an electric fence is not breeched. The lambies only need one zapping to stay away.
Merinos have such dense wool that they can brush up against an electric fence without being zapped, unless it is wet or the contact is on an ear, nose or nibbled. Then watch out, the zap is audible and the whole flock jumps.
I am taking a gamble on having the sheep up there all night without the fence being on. I am not worried about predators, only that the sheep may not stay put and will breech the fence and come home on their own.
The ducks will most likely stay up there as well. If there is trouble I will hear it, first from them. It is a bit of irony that the noisy ducks need their numbers thinned. Afterwards the three older ducks will hopefully come back to stay here with the flock. One male and 4 females total. A much better balance.
