The ducks are funny poppets, just like us humans the ducks have very different personalities. You may have read a previous newsletter about Olive Pink, now she is definitely one of life’s characters.

Here are some details about this little flock who call Fairy Wren Cottage home.

Breed: Fawn and White Indian Runner Ducks.

Drake: Ferdinand, who is approx 10 years old. (Named after the drake in Babe the movie.)

Hens: Olive Pink, the youngest at approx 9 months old. Myrtle approx 15 months old, and Love Heart is the oldest who hatched November 2018.

We’ve had to make some changes to their bath arrangement and now have two shallow plastic tubs that get emptied and refilled at least once or twice a day. One tub is approx 1 metre diameter and approx 30cm high. The other tub is much smaller, 70cm length x 50 cm width x 15cm high. You see Olive Pink kept getting stuck in the large round tub, it turns out that her legs are a bit shorter and her body longer, some how her proportions make for a difficult time launching out of a big deeper bath.

I’ve included some photos of Ferdinand waiting for the girls before leading them up to the Back Orchard where their duck house is. In the photos you will see Daisy and Esmeralda as well but unfortunately they have both passed from old age since the photos were taken.

Ducks are wonderful pets but you do need a lot of space for them. We have a system and housing already in place for them if they are not able to free range due to the H5 Bird Flu virus but that is a story for another day.

Sending love from the Garden and from the ducks.

Jude x

Ps. Honeybee the duck is good, she lives in another part of the garden and very separate to the Indian Runners.

 

 

You can find some previous posts about Poultry Keeping here:

Hen House changes.

https://fairywrencottage.com/2023/01/04/hen-house-changes/

Tips for buying Poultry.

 https://fairywrencottage.com/2022/12/12/tips-for-buying-poultry/