Our Trio of Giant Blue Croad Langshans, took out  1^st prize for the Rooster, and 1^st and 2^nd prize to the Croad Hens.  Croad Lanshans are huge birds with super gentle natures and feathered legs and feathers all over their feet.

The Welsh Harlequin drake ‘Lucky’ won the beautiful, red, white & blue fringed Champion Ribbon – the third year in a row. Our WH drakes won 1^st and 2^nd prizes. The WH ducks won 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd prizes.

Well done to all of you we are very pleased!

There were many, many entries including weaving, decoupage, tapestry, ceramics, wood carvings, sculpture and incredibly won 1^st prize.

Her piece was a five piece collection of jewellery  – comprising necklaces, earrings and spectacle chains which utilised hand blown glass candle worked beads, old chicken mesh ( actually cut from the pens J) and black glaze.

It was a real thrill to go to the show and see how well we had done, and we returned to Bundanoon after our day at the show exhausted but happy.

The proud parents and babies are all doing well and are very cute.  

The Brown Chinese have a large ball shaped dome on their upper beak. They are one of the best natured breeds of geese. Brown Chinese love to talk as they move around. When Ping and Pong first came to live at Morvern we thought there were people quietly talking just outside the window. Whenever they see you will have a gaggle at you.

Brown Chinese were on the endangered list in Australia. They are now becoming stable, with quite a few breeders taking them on board. Our babies are important to the preservation of this breed.

Miniature horses originated in Europe, in the 1700’s, when royalty kept these tiny equine specimens in their zoos. They are very hardy and often live for between 25 and 30 years. We already know that the foal will be a lovely warm caramel colour and the foal will be named ‘Caramel’.

The baby foal when born will be around 30 cms high and weigh under 10 kilos!

We have just built a new enclosure at Morvern Valley and have 5 pure bred Flemish Giant rabbits.

We have one huge adult mum and the rest are her female kittens.

Meat Farming is one of Australia’s fastest growing industries. The CSIRO has been recommending to farmers to keep these rabbits as an alternative source of income diversification from traditional meat industries.

They grow to about 98 cms in length and between 10 and 15 kilograms.

They are a lovely placid breed and we are very happy to welcome these girls to live out their lives peacefully at Morvern.

Favourite foods are hay, but they love leafy greens, carrots, apples and strawberries as a treat too !

Look how large a giant rabbit can grow!

This second one was found uninjured, but too terrified to emerge from his shell, understandably so – he was on a very busy main road, upon the double yellow lines!

The heavy rains over the past few months seem to have caused all the tortoises to migrate ponds – sadly many are injured…or even worse. Hopefully this pair will make a new home at Morvern Valley safe from any traffic.

Honky has won many ribbons and is a NSW champion – we have entered him in the 2012 Sydney Royal Easter Show – “Good Luck Honky!”

Morvern Valley has also entered Giant Croad Langshan chickens in blue, a Muscovy drake, and Welsh Harlequin ducks too!

Shaun is solid black lamb. Barbara has really unusual colouring for a Suffolk lamb as she is light and spotty so they are really easy to tell apart.

The lambs will be cute and little for four or five months – skipping and hopping around the Morvern Valley paddocks drinking from their mums.

When the baby lambs latch onto their mums, their little tails start to wiggle high in the air. This shows the lamb is getting its milk – and if it’s the least bit quiet you can even hear them guzzling! Sometimes when they are finished feeding they will have a little milk foam on the side just like a moustache, it is so cute!

Mum and baby are kept penned up together alone for a couple of days. The length of time we keep then penned up usually depends on the age of the ewe mum. Our first timers we will leave longer then our veterans. We have some ewes – ‘Baa Baa’ and ‘Barbie’ included, that are so good they may only stay penned up for a day.

Baby lambs sleep a lot at first and each time they wake up they search for mama.

Lambing time is a great time around our place. One of the greatest miracles is birth. What may be a close second is to hear mama and baby yell for each other from across the pasture, and the reunion when they meet up!

Both lambs visited Bundanoon Public Schools Kindergarten this week where they just loved all the attention from the kinders!

Stay tuned goslings, peacocks, ducklings, chicks and frogs all being born in these next weeks too!

He did have a little help from his owner, Julie Peacock; after all, she has created the bloodline from which he came, from ducks that she bought five years ago.

Lucky is a Welsh harlequin, a breed of domestic duck originating in Wales. It is known for its vibrant plumage.

Julie, who owns Morvern Valley Farm Cottages, said she saw the Welsh harlequin at a poultry auction about seven years ago.

“I didn’t buy them that day, but I thought about them because they were just so pretty,” she said.

“Normally ducks are quite plain and only a drake is beautiful. Why have one beautiful creature and a crowd of daggy ones following it. Why not have a whole clan of beautiful looking ducks?”

By breeding her own ducks she has been able to change some characteristics such as yellow beaks in females to a slate grey. She would then pick two more ducks to breed the next generation.

Not to worry about the ducks that don’t make the cut, they get to live out a long and happy life on the farm. The ones that do get selected travel to the shows.

Julie’s interest in poultry started at an early age with the purchase of an 80 cent chick from Paddy’s market. She has always entered at local shows but never up in Sydney.

Mrs Peacock said she was always scared of entering of the Sydney Royal Easter Show because it is the pinnacle.

“When I won the Moss Vale Show, not only the champion but the reserve champion, someone said to me ‘I don’t think you know how good your ducks are’,” she said.

“I had a very good poultry mentor, Cec Denney, who died last year and he wanted me to go in the Easter show. He really wanted me to go in the show.

“So I entered and, lo and behold, champion first time”.

Lucky won over the female and the male section to be overall champion.

“If they don’t think any duck is superb, they won’t award it at all,” Julie said.

She still pinches herself about the win and plans to get Lucky’s ribbon framed.

Although he is a champion duck, he isn’t the only Lucky on the farm as Julie’s children, Braedon and Alecia, always call all the winning ducks, Lucky.

Tawny Frogmouths are large nocturnal birds measuring about 48 cms! The beak is very wide but doesn’t protude a lot and is covered with feathers.

A truly prehistoric looking bird!

During the day, they perch on tree branches, often low down, camouflaged as part of the tree. During his stay he stayed perfectly still – he thought he was blending in with the fencepost – but we were able to get up nice and close for a good look at such an unusual bird.

The bulk of the Tawny Frogmouth’s diet is made up of nocturnal insects, worms, slugs and snails. Small mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds are also eaten. Most food is obtained by pouncing to the ground from a tree or other elevated perch. Some prey items, such as moths, are caught in flight, which has led to many unfortunate instances of birds being hit by cars while chasing insects illuminated in the beam of the headlights.

We saw him suddenly fly and catch an insect – he was not scared of us at all.

During the day, the Tawny Frogmouth perches on a tree branch, often low down, camouflaged as part of the tree.