Friday, June 29, 2012

I Know Your Daddy

Mr. Red Neck, our free range turken rooster must have found a fancy for one of the farm's Japanese hens.  It's unmistakable who the daddy is.

Mr. Red Neck


Japanese hen nesting on her eggs


One of 2 chicks that have hatched



It's apparent from this photo (double click to enlarge) who the daddy is. Looks like we have more turkens on the farm and more yet to come.

One of the chicks jumped out of the coop and momma hen doesn't like me getting close to try to take the video.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Mulberry's Farm Animals are TV Personalities

Been busy at the farm AND busy on the set. Friday June 15th found us taking Walker our ram, Billy Bob our billy goat and Corn Flake the farm's resident rooster to TV26 station for June's addition of Bonnie's Barnyard. (click to watch video)


We also enjoyed TV5 coming to the farm 2 days later on June 17th.  Sunday Morning Road Trip brought Melanie Wells to the farm to see Norma (our milking cow), Champ (our 750# boar), PuNkin (newborn colt) and Walker (our ram).



Ram
  • A male sheep is called a ram. 
  • Mulberry’s ram is a Shetland. His name is Walker. 
  • Rams are famous for their large, curled horns. The horns serve as a symbol of status and are used as a weapon when battling other rams over mating rights. 
  • Sheep have scent glands on their face (beneath their eyes) and feet (between their toes). The scent glands are used in communicating to the ewes (females) during breeding season. 
  • Walker is daddy to about 25 lambs at Mulberry Lane Farm each year.
Billy Goat
  • A male goat is called a billy. 
  • Mulberry’s billy is a pygmy goat. His name is Billy Bob. 
  • Both the male and the female goat can have horns and beards. The horns on a goat are straight unlike the ram’s whose horns are curled. 
  • Billy goats have a strong musk-like odor during breeding season.  The scent glands are located around the horn base and function in stimulating the does. 
  • Billy Bob is daddy to about 30 kid goats at Mulberry Lane Farm each year.
Rooster
  • A male chicken is called a rooster. 
  • Mulberry’s rooster is called Corn Flake. He is named after the Corn Flake cereal box rooster. 
  • Roosters perform a little dance called tidbitting in which they make sounds and move their head up and down, picking up and dropping a bit of food. 
  • Hens prefer roosters that often perform tidbitting and have larger, brighter combs on top of their heads and large wattles, the dangly bit beneath his beak.  
  • Hens will lay eggs without a rooster present. However, the eggs then will not be fertile and hatch out chicks. 
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