July05

Friday, 1st

It was getting difficult to keep 11 growing ducklings in the house. Even washing the floor twice a day couldn't get rid of the smell - I've even blocked up the washing machine because the towels and old curtains I'd put down for the ducklings were too messy!

So John has converted the old chicken coop in the garage, and this lunchtime I carried them into their new home. They may look a bit pathetic, like prisoners, but they settled very nicely. And they're warm with the brooder lamp above.

I did let them have some fun time outside before I put them into the garage. Here are some pictures from today:

Monday, 4th

It was hilarious this afternoon. I had the ducklings out while I trimmed my cotoneaster "chair". Then it started to rain, and as their backs will be soft and downy for some time yet I put them back in the garage where they settled under John's tractor mower while I cleaned out their run.

There were only a few spots of rain, so I shunted them before me (with a bucket of water for an incentive) to the soft fruit borders where they settled happily alternately pecking the ground and having a drink while I picked a bucketful of gooseberries and red currants. I was feeling the cold by then, so I thought they must be and started back to the garage ..... and they all followed me en masse!

While I refreshed their water and food containers they hung around until they discovered the muddy puddle I'd made by the tap, and they were all in there when Fanny came up. She went closer and closer to them and -------- one of the little drakes (well, it had to be a drake, hadn't it; one of Rudolpho's probably) chased her away twice, head down, proper Rudo fashion! Aw, poor Fanny. Just when she thinks she has some company they chase her away. Her feathers were all bristly with fright.

On the right you can see the little chap after his chasing had been effective. I was so surprised and laughed so much I didn't catch the chase on camera.

Thursday, 7th The day of the atrocities in London.

Had a nice afternoon out with the ducklings yesterday. Although it was very windy I found a sheltered spot for them and I was able to catch up with some tidying up in the border alongside the frog pond. I took a few snaps, of course, and here are 6 of them. On the first one you can maybe see the feathers growing on the "first born" in the middle, who is now the biggest having overtaken No3 in size. The only one of Eppi's eggs that hatched - John came up immediately with a name for this one: Eppilogue! Ha, ha.

I particularly like the last photo where it looks as if the biggest is asking the rest for attention, like a school teacher.

They're growing up ever so fast. Soon they'll be "gawky" teenagers, as Annie says - but they still look very cute to me.

It was brother Helmut who first suggested I should try and incubate some eggs, because I was so fond of my runners that I should have some "back-up" for when they died. Little did he know .....

If you've read these diaries you will know that my first attempt at breeding ducklings with a home-made incubator failed (too great a variation in temperatures, mainly), and I had hardly dared hope for more than 2 or 3 eggs to hatch this time. All of a sudden we had 11 (would have been a dozen but for the 12th being too weak to pip the shell) little beings that needed proper care and attention, and I had to do some frantic searching through the internet to find out how to raise ducklings.

And here I'd like to give a big THANK YOU
to http://www.carolinecrockeroriginals.co.uk/home.htm, the one site where I found all the information I needed, beautifully set out, illustrated and animated, with plenty of links to other helpful sites. Caroline Crocker is an inspiration, and not just for duck keeping!

Friday, 8th

10 of our ducklings are over 3 weeks old now, the last one will be at 10.30 tonight, but "Baby" is hard to distinguish from the others now. It's amazing how fast they're growing and how well they are doing, they're a constant source of delight.

We had a very pleasant afternoon in the garden yesterday. Here are the ducklings just out of the garage - you can see Harlequin's not at all bothered about them, she is lying flat, front left. She was very good when we had the dozen little chicks, as well. And here's a picture of me watching them on the garden side of the frog pond:

Sunday, 10th

The weather was beautiful yesterday, and the ducklings were out in the garden with us nearly all day. While John was getting the red currants ready for freezing they sheltered from the sun under the stool and pecked John's feet for entertainment. When we had our lunch outside they sheltered under the table. The one in the middle with the brown face is one of the "twins" as I call them.
Came out of 2 of Fanny's eggs on Friday 17th morning, and they're the only ones with brown faces and are proper little waterbabies - always among the first when there is a chance for a swim.

Carl and family came around to see them late afternoon. We had just got a bowl of water ready for the ducklings to have a splash, and Carl took these two photos:

You can see the "twins" again behind the one in front on the left. That size bowl, when it was in the conservatory, used to accommodate 5 or 6 ducklings splashing around in it. Now not even one wanted to go in - except to run through and get out of the way of somebody trying to grab them!

Today was an even warmer day than yesterday, and I thought it would be a good idea to have the ducklings in semi shade near some water. At 11 I guided them out of the garage and into the old chicken run where Fanny was still standing by the side of the apple tree pond. As soon as the little mob approached she went off to her 'haven', the duck pond. Yesterday she had come up 2 or 3 times to pinch some of the ducklings' food. Today she only came up once, found no food, and cleared off again in disgust. Shame she doesn't know who these little ones are.

I wasn't sure if they'd dare go into what for them must have been a vast expanse of water. Only two or three went in to start with and came straight out again. But then the fun started!

They were splashing, diving, "standing" up in the water flapping their little wings just like the grown-ups, shooting across the pond, out again, in again - oh, the excitement!

I left them in that old chicken run all day until ¼ past 6. They had got the sense to come out, dry off, have a little snooze several times, but I wanted them to dry off properly before 'putting them to bed'. And they had a really thorough preening session before falling asleep under the car:

Thursday, 14th

I have a few days to catch up on. Something I've been really pleased about is that none of the ducklings are limping now, neither 13.5. who was injured while hatching nor No.2 who developed a limp for a week or so after we moved them out of the conservatory. Must have been all the exercise and swimming that sorted it.

Something else I've been chuffed about is that John saw a waterhen again on the duck pond, in the early morning yesterday and today. Hope that more will join it.

We've been amazed at the growth of the ducklings' feathers - their chests and tums are beautifully covered in a cape of bronze and brown feathers. No wonder they swim so well; even fall asleep sometimes floating on the water. Not while Fanny is in there with them, though. She is really making a point of being in charge, her main object being to keep them from food - which she considers all hers. She makes threatening movements and they swim off frightened even when she just dips in her beak for a drink. She actually goes in now and again and pecks at them. Then they shriek and scurry off to the opposite side.

A strange thing I saw when Fanny was in the pond on her own while the youngsters had some food. She kept picking up something reddish brown, 3 - 4 inches long, and dropping it again with a kind of shudder. It was one of those large dragon flies that look as if they are wearing crash helmets, and it was dead. I must read up on dragon flies to find out if they lay eggs this time of year and then die. Fanny did eat it in the end!

Fanny seems really grumpy at the moment. Maybe it's the aftereffects of losing all her mates. But she is losing a lot of feathers in the moult and has not been laying for a couple of weeks, which is highly unusual for her as she's missed hardly a day since she began on 8th February. Hope she takes to the new mob when they're a bit older! A couple of pictures below of Fanny asserting her authority:

But the ducklings understand threatening behaviour anyway, the advance with open beak and head lowered, they do that to each other and also take the odd peck - well, I suppose the boys do ..... girls wouldn't do such things, would they?? It's to establish a pecking or "beaking" order, I suppose. There's never any harm done.

They were so funny on Monday morning, after their first day in the apple tree pond. Having come out of the garage they spotted the gate where they had gone through to have such fun yesterday, and they remembered! They stood queuing up stamping from one foot to the other until we opened the gate, then went in all excited, straight into the water. They are so confident in there now they show off to each other. Some spectacular dives can be seen. They raise up out of the water before diving in with a huge splash, and re-emerge with a whoosh at the opposite side of the pond, quite something! Once one starts this several others follow like "anything you can do I can do better". I slung my hammock under the huge cherry tree in there a couple of days ago, and have a great time watching!

Tuesday, 19th Leah's birthday

More to catch up on. Saturday morning I was up early, in the tumble-down greenhouse, and I thought I'll just see if the ducklings will come out of the hatch where the chickens used to. Well, one of the twins did after the initial fright, and then a couple more. While I was busy guiding the first three down the ramp and showing them the short cut to the pond .......... all the others had followed down the ramp already. And I hadn't got the camera with me! The next day they had come out so fast that my camera wasn't ready then, either, but I did get them yesterday:

It's amazing how fast they learn. But John will make them a more secure ramp.

Sunday morning I had another fright. It was so nice early on that I let all ducks out before 7. Fanny shot straight down to the duck pond. The little ones came out of the hatch before I expected it and jumped into the new pond. Went to have my breakfast cup of tea with the new Harry Potter when I heard pheasants making a racket and Fanny being noisy. That was 10 past 7. So in the light of recent experiences I went straight down to the duck pond. There was a waterhen parading up and down the branches at the back, and I was thrilled to see it. When it spotted me it flew up into the elder.

I was just turning to go back to HP when I saw the elongated red/brown shape just on the other side of the ditch. Yes, true enough, it was a youngish fox, just trotting off in the direction of Peter's chickens. Well, I tried for forty minutes to get Fanny off the pond - not to be too hard on her the water IS very low and she had trouble getting out. Well, she DID get out at the familiar place where she sits all day several times, but as soon as I approached she was in again. And I wasn't going to risk running again and slip and crack another bone. Went to get help from John, and when we got down there she was actually out of the pond and on her way up! Blooming ducks, who'd have them!

Anyway, we kept them in together all day. It's good to see the youngsters sticking up for themselves when Fanny turns nasty. They can do the threatening moves as well as she! And the first born three are nearly as big as she is.

Wednesday, 20th

Saw the same fox again last night, 9.25, although John thinks it's a vixen. Our neighbour says there's a vixen with two young ones about. We were still in the conservatory watching TV when I saw it passing by the door - it had come up from near the stile. John dashed out and saw it go straight up the drive and turn left down the road. Shall we ever be able to relax again and let our animals enjoy the freedom of our field and garden?

Fanny and ducklings have sorted themselves out in these last four days they've been together all the time. The first born, "Eppilogue", ist just over 5 weeks old now and nearly as big as Fanny; some of the others are as well. From a distance we can only tell which one is Fanny by the size of her wings. Last night she almost came out with the youngsters when I drove them into the garage at bed time.

I dug out two barrowloads of turves yesterday (before anybody shouts about taking care of my poorly left hand I did it one-handedly, with my right!) and put them around the new pond. It'll take a lot more to cover the liner, but all the ducks really appreciated the turves. And when I throw them some torn-up lettuce into the pond they go ecstatic - even Fanny joins in, who previously never touched lettuce.

Thursday, 21st

The ducklings and Fanny are getting on fine now. Last night Fanny came all the way to the elevated coop when we drove the ducklings into the garage at bed time. I lifted the youngsters in one by one as usual, and we wondered if Fanny would let herself be lifted in, too. But she ducked out at the last moment!

We've actually had some rain. Very necessary, too, the soil being as dry as a bone and big cracks showing everywhere in the clay seams. Was delighted to see, when we had a particularly violent downpour a couple of days ago, all 12 ducks shoot out of their pond as one to seek shelter under the giant cherry tree!

Monday, 25th

Went and dug out three big strips of turf yesterday morning, before the forecast torrential rain arrived, because the previous lot was all messy and smelly. And I did it with a spade this time - my one-handed digging with a trowel had given me a blister!

The torrential rain duly arrived, and come three in the afternoon I was so worried about the youngsters - who still have some down on their backs - getting wet through and chilled I drove the lot into the garage, gave them food and water and towels to sleep on, and left them until 8 in the evening when the rain had stopped. When I let them out to have 1 ½ hour's swim before bedtime they were all in a corner and hadn't even touched the towels - oh well, less washing.

Last night was the second one they spent in the hut with Fanny, and they all followed her out beautifully in the mornings. At night it was somewhat more difficult. On Saturday Fanny went in as normal, and I managed to push one of the youngsters in with her - the others ran to the gate. I had to chase and pick up every single one, lift the hatch of the hut and push them in. Last night I had John's help, and after 2 false tries all 11 trooped in after Fanny. We're still debating whether to build an extension to the hut or whether, with a better access ramp, we could train Fanny to walk up there with the youngsters. The space in the old chicken coop is nearly twice that of the duck hut.

I'm really relieved they're all getting on now. Here are some pictures - you can probably only tell which one is Fanny by the size of her wings and her green beak:

When we had enticed them into the garden to do a bit of foraging (picture below) Fanny, as normal, set off for the duck pond. But the youngsters were too frightened to follow and she came back! She tried 3 or 4 times without getting them to follow, and they've all stayed together ever since.

On this last photo, taken in the dark under the huge cherry tree, Annie's predicted "gawky teenagers" certainly appear to be with us! Something else we noticed - last Friday and Saturday, both John and I heard what sounded like a voice breaking. No, not one of the drakes (they, apparently, are quieter than the ducks who do all the quacking), it was a sound in between a cheep and a quack. They are certainly growing up!

Tuesday, 26th

I should have returned to this diary last night, because we had a remarkable and happy afternoon. About 2.30 I thought I would try and get the ducks away from the apple tree pond - rather smelly at present - and into the frog pond which was getting very overgrown for lack of duck disturbance. I tied back the collapsed reeds and then shooed Fanny in. She used to be in there all the time anyway until she lost her mates, and she called to the youngsters to join her, but they were scared.

I gently guided them down the steps, and as soon as the first 3 started snuffling among the bog edge all the others hurtled in. And then the fun started with splashings and spectacular dives. I had been worried about them getting tangled among the waterlily leaves, but I needn't have. All 12 worked their way over and under the by now very large leaves, but mainly snuffling all along the edge to the far corner; here's a sequence of photos:

They all came out once or twice to preen themselves and get some of the food and water they were used to, and on this shot you can see what I'm sure are three drakes, 2 on the very left next to Fanny, and 1 on the very right. Their head markings are much darker than the others'.
I can't get over how fast they're growing, there are changes to be seen every day. Came across a photo that Alan and Frances sent us after their visit just a month ago - what a change:

The ducks had such an exciting time in their new pond that I thought I'd never get them out again. But when it got to near Coro time I splashed them out and drove them back to their smelly pond, and at 9 we shut them into the hut - it was a little easier again.

My happy mood was somewhat spoiled by watching the programme on the new Al Quaeda, and that itself was interrupted at 9.30 by another terrorist: a fox came from the road running past the conservatory and into the orchard. I ran out after it straight away but didn't see it any more, nor did John when he had a look around.

PS on Tuesday 26th: I am distraught. Having just let the ducks run to the frog pond to resume their happy activities of yesterday one of the twins just collapsed and died on the steps without warning. We certainly had seen no sign of anything wrong, and can't understand why a beautiful and apparently healthy 5 week old duckling should suddenly die.

Sunday, 31st

I've drawn some comfort from what a nice lady called Amy wrote to me on the http://www.countrysmallholding.com/ bulletin board:" ... sometimes when chicks hatch out the organs can fail to develop correctly or sufficiently to support the size of the bird, so as it grows it is likely to not survive." If this was the case then I'll just have to accept it as one of those things, and trust that it remains an isolated case. I've joined the Indian Runner Duck Association - see if they can enlighten me further.

Wednesday night was the last time we saw a fox. I was just going out to shut the ducks in at 9; it was standing there no more than 15 yards away at the top of the orchard, looking at me. As soon as I opened the door it was off through the orchard in the direction of the duck pond, and again, although I ran after it at once, never saw any more of it. Of course, there are a multitude of hiding places both along our ditch and in the watermeadows next door.

The lush growth of waterlilies you can see in the pictures of Tuesday 26th have had the duck treatment. Just look how they've shredded them:
Yesterday they spent nearly all day in there as John and I emptied the new pond - it was stinky and slimy. The great number of stalks I had seen floating in there and wondered what they were turned out to be the remnants of oxygenators, Canadian pond weed - they'd been stripped to the core.

Before re-filling the pond I planted a big group of reeds in the deepest part, hoping most of them will survive the ducks' efforts and filter the water. We let the little mob back in before the pond was quite full. They stood there perplexed for a little time, then the biggest drake went in and struggled to come out again. Eventually the remaining twin went in and all the others followed. They had a great time ducking and diving and nibbling the reeds until bedtime.

To end July here's a nice line-up at the stile end of the frog pond, and one of me guiding them back to home base before going to Chapel: