The lambies are coming! The lambies are coming! And maybe some ducklings too.

Last weekend, we brought all of our ewes in to check udders, crutch those that needed crutching, and do our Spring flock health. A few of our girls are starting to get some good sized udders. Our first lambs aren't due until the first week of May but I've got a sneaking suspicion that we may have one or two of the girls go early. I'm getting anxious to see what we get this year.

For our 2011 lambs, we've used three Shetland rams and our BFL ram. We are expecting lambs from:

FirthofFifth Aman - I purchased Aman this past Fall from my friend, Bill Stearman. I have loved this boy from the first moment I saw him on Bill's farm. Needless to say, he got a lot of our girls. :)

WillowGarden Wedge (pictured above at 6 months) - he got a good sized group too. We were really happy with the lambs he gave us in 2009. We didn't use him for our 2010 lamb crop as we only bred for mules and didn't produce any purebred Shetlands in 2010.

V Creek Leo - he had three ewes including my one primitive ewe, Sheltering Pines Hope. We lost Leo unexpectedly this winter so I am really keeping my fingers crossed for some nice ewe lambs and a ram prospect from him.

Amadeus, our BFL boy received a small initial group of ewes and I also used him as our cleanup ram for this year's lambing.

In addition to lambs arriving soon, I have a dozen Indian Runner Duck eggs now sitting in an incubator at Donna's house. If all goes as planned, we'll have our first hatch of ducklings in about a month's time.

I love Spring!

Good News, Bad News

Wednesday was a "good news, bad news" kind of day. First the bad news. I lost one of my Runner drakes. I can't entirely piece together what happened but it appears that may have been injured. He passed away overnight. :(

Now for the good news. My hens are laying! We are getting approximately two duck eggs per day as of Wednesday. Although Runners are not known for being particularly broody, I've decided to leave the eggs in the nest and see what happens. The eggs are numbered and there's a chicken egg in there too. Maybe one of the Barred Rock hens will go broody? Stay tuned!