Peafowl on TV26's Bonnie's Barnyard

Oops...they almost got away. Certainly brought excitement to the set!

Farmer Bonnie and Farmer Pat brought Mulberry Lane Farm's peafowl to the set of NBC TV26, Green Bay.

You can see the full segment of Bonnie's Barnyard here:

  

Interesting peafowl facts:

• Male peafowl are called peacocks. Female peafowl are called peahens. Offspring under the age of one year are called peachicks.
• The most common breed of peafowl is the Indian Blue.
• Besides their colorful tail feathers, peacocks are distinguished by their blue neck feathers. Peahens have green neck feathers and lack the decorative tail feathers.
• Males raise their feathers into a fan and quiver them as part of courtship display.
• The peacock will molt (shed) its tail in late summer at the end of the breeding season.
• The tail feathers grow back about an additional foot each year extending as long as 6 feet when fully grown around age six.
• An adult peacock has an average of 200 tail feathers. Of the 200 or so feathers, about 170 are "eye" feathers and 30 are '"T" feathers.
• Peafowl are very hardy birds and with proper care, can live forty to fifty years.

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Sheep Shears by Andis

It's that time of year...spring is just around the corner. The bellies of our nannie goats and ewe sheep are getting bigger and bigger as they draw closer to kidding and lambing. (giving birth)  That means we need to start planning to shear our sheep soon. Farmer Pat is tickled pink about trying out his brand new Andis Sheep Shear. We have had the privilege of acquiring the heavy duty Model LGS.

Note: It is best to do the shearing before the mother ewe lambs, but not to close to lambing as to risk the stress of the "wool cut" causing premature labor. That is why plans are in the making to get the job done right.

Although the shears themselves are made in Switzerland ("Shearing Capital of the World" From Wikipedia), the Andis Corporation is based right here in WI! (Racine County)

 

Before we use the shears we wanted to share how similar the sheep shear is to the shears used by professional barbers and stylist. (Although theirs is on a much smaller scale.)

This shears is heavy!  Perhaps that's why they call it heavy-duty.  Good thing Farmer Pat has muscles. :)

But, in all seriousness, sheep shears have to be of good quality to do a clean accurate job.  Have you seen the wool on an unshorn ewe or ram?

On Wednesday, March 21st, watch WGBA NBC26 at 6:50 AM to see a short sheep shearing demo on Bonnie's Barnyard.  Don't worry if you don't get Green Bay stations in your area or you're not an early riser. I'll be sure to post a link to the program here.  Stay tuned...

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