Bye Bye Brenda

When years ago we first decided to keep ducks we homed in on Cayugas, partly due to their amazing iridescent blue/green plumage. Quite a few of that original flock are still with us (despite the UPS massacre) but they are a bit doddery and much of their plumage is now a senior white.

We have made several attempts over the years to bring in new blood in the form of hatching eggs. These batches resulted in Solo (the name tells the story) and later, Houdini (ditto).

This year we appear to have managed to hatch five (although gender as yet undetermined) who have been brought up by Brenda, the Borrowed Broody.

They are now turning their backs on her

and yesterday she laid an egg, a sure sign she wanted to go home.

So we resurrected the quality timber Smiths Sectional

filled it with cosy straw

and set up a Big Duck water pool

They would also need to use a Big Duck feeder

The ducklings had not told us they were agrophobic. Also, since our mixed duck flock is well settled, we had forgotten that Cayugas Do Not Like Change.

We had to improvise a small run within a big run

Which they agreed to tolerate

And then the sun went down