Newcomers

Spot the newcomers?  Apr 2019

After talking about it for several years, I finally did something about it:  I got ducks!  A coworker's family keeps geese, pigoens, hens and ducks and mentioned that they'd recently gotten rid of a few ducks.  I said if she had any extra in the future I'd be happy to have them--well, she did and I was.

They are about seven weeks old and half Indian Runner, and half unspecified (the coworker says her son knows but she couldn't remember what he told her--possibly Campbell).  The three of us went to their allotment to pick them up and were very impressed by their set up;  her husband gave us three goose eggs (massive! had to cook them one at a time, as they filled the frying pan), and we met the other poultry;  and seeing their geese gave me ideas...I guess they're a bit noisy for the garden, though. 

These two ducks have settled in pretty well, and it's obvious they've been hand-raised: they follow us around and are quite happy to eat from our hands.  In fact, they call us when they see us:  "peep peep!"  Actually their voices are just starting to break;  I hope they don't quack as loudly as they peep!  We kept them in the chicken tractor for the first several days but have since let them free range over the whole (non-vegetable) garden, including into our pond which they love.  We don't know if they're male or female yet, but even if both are male we'll still be happy to keep them as slug control.

They've met the chickens through the fence, but won't be properly introduced for a few weeks yet I think.  Nine hardened chickens versus two coddled ducklings?  Not until they're more evenly matched;  although size-wise, the ducks are about as tall as the smaller hens now (but not fully feathered yet, and also not equipped with sharp beaks and claws).

We eat grass!  Apr 2019