The wet weather has continued and has washed away some of our plans for today. We had hoped to go to Dad's allotment and sort out various jobs there. We have now shelved that plan. On our main allotment, there is mud everywhere. The goats are refusing (understandably) to come out of the goat house, the hens are not looking happy about the mud and the ducks are having are great time! Regardless of weather (and the forecast is for the rain to stop falling after midday) we will be setting up a new run for the ducklings this afternoon. We have 2 ducklings aged 4 weeks in the nursery unit here at home and 2 aged 8 weeks in the greenhouse. The aim is to bring them together without the two drakes fighting so that they can form one group. So, later this afternoon we will put the younger ducklings into the duckhouse in the new run first. About half hour later we will add the two from the greenhouse.
When we first got the ducks in 2012, we put three adults (one was a drake) into the duckhouse. Minutes later we added 5 ducklings (which were about 3 weeks old). The group instantly bonded. Our theory is that the older drake had not established the duckhouse as his territory when the ducklings were added. Everything, including the ducklings, were new to him. He simply had to knuckle down in an unfamiliar environment. All the ducks and ducklings then bonded. No fighting. We are hoping to replicate this today with our latest ducklings. Watch this space.
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