ducks

We're missing a duck. Not lost, but savaged by a dog that ran into the yard. Someone from the stables found the duck floating limply in the water, its tail end raw and half chewed and the dog nearby trying to get at it again. The dog had no collar or means of identification so someone slipped a leading rope around it while we tried to contact the dog warden (as I certainly didn't want the dog on the farm) and Bill put the duck out of its agony. A few minutes later a man arrived on the farm searching for his dog. He was shown the duck. He offered money. We declined. He took the dog away using the leading rope because he didn't have a lead. A few days later an envelope arrived in the post. Inside was the leading rope and a latex glove. No note. Bizarre. By coincidence, the next day a friend had a chicken massacred in his yard by a dog that the owner didn't have on a lead. Not pleasant.

The last duck that sat on her eggs abandoned them shortly after I wrote about it. Now there is another duck sitting - The little brown duck has been sitting tight on her nest. The other ducks leave the run... read more

Sitting Duck

Despite the change in weather from hot and sunny through to cold and wet, the ducks have been laying plenty of eggs this spring. There haven't been so many to collect this week as one of the ducks has gone broody and decided to sit on her eggs. The other ducks lay on straw in the shelter, but this duck has chosed to wedge herself between the wall and the back of the shelter to make her nest. Ducks are notoriously bad mothers so I'm not sure how many (if any) ducklings will survive. The last duck to hatch any eggs decided that she only liked black ducklings and killed all the yellow ducklings as soon as they emerged from the eggs.

On the fields, the recent dry(ish) spell has given us a chance to spread some fertiliser on the wheat and spray the oilseed rape.

the ducks have an adventurous day out

I think our ducks have a pretty good life. Just before dusk they walk to the duck pen, sometimes storming the henhouse en route to devour any feed the hens might not have finished (usually breaking the food hopper in the process) and after they've been fed they settle down for the night, securely shut away from predatory foxes. During the day they wander around the farm  - congregating in the long grass, picking up the wheat that spills onto the ground by the speed bump during harvest time and splashing around in the pond. Sometimes they wander off to the horse paddocks or into the garden but they usually stay fairly close to the pond.

So what on earth got into their heads yesterday? Why did they decide it would be a good idea to waddle out of the yard, through some undergrowth, under a hedge, across one half of a dual carriageway and settle down in the central reservation of the by-pass? When I found them they looked quite happy there. One of them was sitting down contentedly and the others appeared to be watching the traffic pass by. Luckily there was a break in the traffic and I managed to shush them across the road and back to the pond. I thought that was the end of it but then Bill found them later in the day making another break for it. He's put up some duck barricades to stop them getting out through the bushes but a large drainage pipe leads from the end of a nearby ditch under the road. Let's hope they don't decide that their next big adventure will be to swim down the pipe.

waiting ...

Everything is cleaned and serviced, ready for harvest. Bill keeps looking at the oilseed rape, but it isn’t ready yet. So, just waiting ...

Some sunshine would help.

Meanwhile, a cute picture. The ducks have hatched some eggs and we have four surviving ducklings.

Still no rain

Still no rain.

A combination of low water levels and erosion has meant that the island in the middle of the pond has almost disappeared and this is the first time for years that a wild duck hasn’t nested on it.

At the Essex Young Farmers Show on Sunday, the main topic of conversation wherever we went was the lack of rain. The newly planted Christmas trees are dying, the flowers on the beans are really low on the stalk, which means they will be difficult to combine and the yield from our wheat crop is predicted to be cut by half. Across the area, farmers who have forward sold their crops are buying themselves out of contracts as they won’t be able to produce enough grain to fulfil them and those who have expensive storage agreements with large co-operative grain stores will have charges to pay even if they have little to put in.

And today there is a burst water pipe down the road so we have no mains water either.

All a bit doom and gloom.

But at least we aren’t being showered with volcanic ash cloud.

Duck Eggs

I suspected the ducks were laying eggs but I couldn’t find them until I crawled into their shelter and scrabbled in the straw to find this little lot hidden away. So, it's good that it’s Shrove Tuesday and I can use some of them for pancakes.

New Year

After a cold December spent selling Christmas trees, Bill was pleased to shut the barn door on Christmas Eve with only a handful of trees left and retreat to the warmth of the house to celebrate Christmas.

Although the snow has disappeared, the ducks can't get onto the pond because it's still iced over and so have pushed their way under the fence into the field where the pigs lived and have been treating the wallow as a mini pond. The ground here is wet and muddy with water standing in the low ways so it's hard work walking along the footpaths and the horses kept in the livery yard are limited to turning out on a rota basis otherwise the fields would be a sea of mud.