Who's that knocking at the door?

We have several ducks at Shalom Engedi but this pair is probably the most entertaining.  They are best friends with Pom-Pom Head -mother of the new duckling and yes - this is the psycho Papa who killed most of his children.  

Most of the time the three of them hang out together but right now Pom-Pom Head is locked in her pen with her one-remaining-child for their protection - a few more days and they will be let out for short amounts of time each day until baby can handle a full day of running around.  The picture below was taken before the rampage. 

My daughter and I bought the three adult ducks from a small farm near Peterborough.  They were wanting to sell some of their Rouen Ducks (the dark colored ones) but we took one look at Pom-Pom Head and started laughing - she looked so funny with that big fluff ball on her head.  We were smitten so the kind farmer threw her in with the deal.  We found out later she was a Crested White Duck.

The female (above) and the male (below) have not yet hatched out any eggs of their own so we've locked them up together at night in a separate pen to see if we can get momma to start a nest. 

We've never actually picked up any of these ducks.  We can herd them where they need to go so it's never been necessary to catch one.  They are very skittish and waddle quacking away from you when ever you walk by - they do know who's in charge however and where to come if things aren't quite as they should be.

The other night when everyone else got locked up in their pens they decided to pull an all-nighter and were no where to be found at bedtime.  We locked up the barn and went inside hoping they would find a safe place for the night in one of the outbuildings.  About an hour later as it was getting REALLY dark and we heard:  Knock knock..knock knock knock.  What was that?  I headed for the back door and there they were sitting on the back windowsill tapping on the window with their beaks as if to say - Ah we changed our minds...can you put us to bed now?

They followed me to the barn quacking happily and went straight to their pen and before you wonder - YES they know exactly which pen is theirs so it's not hard to sort everyone out at night.  We just open the doors and in they go.

The Muscovy mommas are sitting on a huge nest of eggs right now and they should hatch any day.  There's nothing cuter than baby ducklings...except maybe a baby lamb!

We've had a hard time naming him but we finally decided on Aran Fredrick Bernard III - if they all get names that long we're going to run out but it seems appropriate since he's the very first lamb born on the farm.  Aran is Jewish and means Joyous, Fredrick is the name of the original farmer and Bernard because one of the kids in our youth group thought it would be funny to use my DH middle name.  That's a mouthful for such a little guy!


Anybody knocking on your door?