Introducing the Ducks

Burnside, with its burns, ponds, woodland and acres of wild-flower meadows is a haven for our little flock of ducks.  This year we hatched 5 ducklings under a broody bantam, Harriet.

 Here is the first duckling fluffed up and you can just see the second one emerging from the egg next to it.

 All five ducklings just about staying still enough for a photo.

Ducklings are attracted to water from the start.

It takes 4 weeks to incubate duck eggs, rather than 3 weeks for hens and 19-20 days for bantams, so Harriet did a great job successfully hatching 5 ducklings.

Here are the ducklings at just 7 weeks of age.  They are the three at the end of this line and the two at the beginning of the line.  Three are white like their mothers and two are coloured like their fathers & grandfather.  The four duckings in the middle of the line are about the same age but are Indian Runner ducklings that we bought.  Most ducks stop laying in the winter but Indian Runners may still lay some eggs during the winter.  They have a much more upright body shape and it's very amusing to watch them run.  The two white geese in the background are Gertie and Gloria.

Here is the whole of the current flock of ducks.
The two drakes, which we hatched last year, are the black, grey and white ducks in the back of this photo below.  They are called Chucking and Dickens - names I gave to the first two ducks I hatched under a broody hen when I was about 12 years old.  I first started keeping chickens at the age of 8 when we moved to the countryside from a Midlands town and I was given a broody hen and 13 eggs for Easter.

The four brown ducks in the centre of the photo below are our new Khaki Campbells.  They are just starting to lay, which is good news for those who like buying our duck eggs since the older white Cherry Valley ducks are coming to the end of their laying for this year.
 

Here a group of the ducks and ducklings are preening - they spend a lot of time attending to their feathers and keeping them well oiled using the oil gland at the base of their tail feathers on their back.

At the moment the ducks are confined to this large lawn area with a ditch and pond.  When the ducklings are all fully grown and I'm confident the new ducks are fully integrated with the older ducks and the 2 drakes then the gate will be opened and they'll have the freedom to roam over a much larger area.  The boggy bit in the woods between two burns is a favourite area for them and I'm sure the older ducks will waste no time introducing the new ducks to its muddy delights.