Duck, Duck, Gone

I’ve had ducks for almost ten years now, but that’s about to change. For a time at least.

At the end of every summer, ducks moult. Moulting causes the ducks to lose their feathers, stop laying eggs and begin building up their nutrient reserves. Ducks tend to lay best over the cool wet months – chickens tend to do the opposite.

How long the ducks moult for, and when they moult exactly is variable for us every year. Many years we’ve been super lucky and moult has begun at the end of January (when our restaurant deliveries start slowing down).

This year, our main group of ducks are about 3 years old and with a moult just around the corner I have decided to find new homes for many of our ducks. A few will remain on the farm living with the chooks.

Anyone looking to have a couple of ducks hang out in their backyard, please get in touch. They’re selling for $8 each. I’m happy to talk about the best way to nurture and look after them. Since Christmas they’ve steadily found new homes, and there are few remaining.

Later this year we may bring in some ducklings or hatch some fertilised eggs. At the moment, we’re just taking stock (pardon the pun) and resetting for what may be another big year.

In addition to the ducks, we are likely to find new homes for some of our sheep soon. Our breeding program continues to progress well. But as with all breeding programs, not all sheep fit the bill perfectly. And with their prolific breeding, our sheep numbers are a little more than we’d like. Should you know of anyone who might be interested in some of our sheep, please get in touch. We do run farm tours every week so many of our sheep are quite friendly.

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Bring on 2021!