Ducky's new girlfriends

Lucky Ducky has grown to enormous proportion and towers over all the other ducks on the pond. Jessica and I waded into the pond to encourage him to go swimming with the others; it took a few attempts but he now swims around with them, I’m not sure if they are his friends or they are simply fascinated by him. 

Once he has his morning ablutions at the pond he waddles back to the chicken pen to check on the latest chick arrivals like a worried father.

My friend Helen texted me some time ago to say she has a chicken sitting on two duck eggs! Maybe one will be female and a spouse for Lucky, at least she will be content to make her home with the chickens in Lucky’s pad.

They are now bigger than their foster mother and all white, one is larger than the other but they are still difficult to sex. Helen’s husband, Graham told me something I never knew before about ducks: apparently a male duck will make a short clipped noise sounding like ‘mum mum, mum mum, mum mum’ where a female will have a longer tone sounding like ‘ naaaaaggg, naaaaaggg, naaaaggg, naaaaaggg’. Fascinating and funny at the same time!

Copyright ©2014 Helen Hilliard

Emma's Room - Kindle/PC book
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www.helenthehealer.co.uk

Not good weather for ducky!

I visited Tazz dog yesterday; he is doing well, it seems the caner lump has not increased in size at all from the start of all his holistic treatment which is wonderful news.

 
As with most of the animal kingdom in the south of England (including Ducky), he is very fed up with this constant rainfall. It is upsetting his walking routine and you know how oldies like routine! His aging bones are getting a bit weary as they would at his age so getting up and down from his comfy bed is more of a struggle for him. He is happy to carry on and by no means ready to go on to his next life just yet.

Poor Ducky’s house was flooded in the night, he was most indignant with it all, protesting at the top of his quack. He had to move home to higher ground.

He is in desperate need of a mate yet none of the other ducks on the pond are interested, maybe because he was hand reared by Jessica. The problem is he has bonded with Jessica, pulling at her legs as he follows her around the yard, if she dares to stop and talk to anyone he has a quackey fit, pecking and protesting until all her attention is back with him. 

We may have a girly for him in the spring but that seems such a long way off right now.

Copyright ©2014 Helen Hilliard
Emma's Room - Kindle/PC book
Titan's Tale - Kindle / PC book
www.helenthehealer.co.uk

Spirit's new lucky friend

Spirits progress on his feet was slow but in the right direction, once his poorly feet found soft grass or straw his walk quickened. Despite the hard concrete of the yard Spirit often chose to stay around, either basking in the sun or just watching Jessica go about her work.

A few weeks ago a very lucky duckling was hatched in the shed between Spirit’s house and the feed shed: There were several eggs under an incubator but after a week or so of nurturing them, it was decided none of them had survived and the incubator was turned off. The unusually warm weather for England kept a constant enough heat to give everyone a pleasant surprise as a very lucky duckling tapped his way out of one of the eggs. Lucky Ducky, as he has now been named, squeaked away in his new home next to Spirit for a week or so when Jessica thought Lucky should have some sunlight on his back.

Placing him carefully in a cardboard box she put the box on the concrete floor of the yard in the sun and under her watchful eye as she went about her chores.

Jessica could see that Spirit was interested in what had been making all the noise next to him for so long; she watched in amazement as Spirit approached the cardboard box, peering inside with a gentle sniff, his eyes were soft and inquisitive, his ears forward, consumed with this little squeaky droplet of fluff inside the box.

In disbelief and with no fear for lucky, Jessica witnessed Spirit gently grasp the edge of Lucky's box in his teeth and with a concentrated eye on the ball of fluff inside, he started to pull the box as he walked backwards around the yard. Not once did he topple Lucky off his feet or frighten the little might, you could almost hear Spirit introducing Lucky to his new environment as he went: ‘This is where I live….. and this is Blackys box, he is very big but don’t worry he won’t hurt you, and this is the feed shed where mum keeps all the best bits’. 

Once Spirit had done his round with Lucky happily in tow he dropped the box back off and tip-toed back to bask in the sunshine.