Before and after?

Ok, this isn't strictly true - the after shot is of busy lizzies in a much smaller pot and I am kind of showing off with my climbing petunias, but the busy lizzie pot is a good example of the locust-style devastation caused by the ducks. Not content with eating the leaves and the flowers, the ducks will continue down into the compost and eat the roots until there is absolutely nothing left. Hence, the size of the "babies" now (see above). We also know the sex of the babies and we have the best possible outcome :) one boy and one girl and they have finally been named, after intense debate at the dinner table over several evenings, and are called Derek and Dilys. The moniker Derek is a nod to our much loved and departed Dave (I think Derek and Dave would have had a pint together down the local followed by a game of darts), and Dilys because she just looks like a Dilys (pretty with a loud quack!).

These are a few of our favourite things!!

No.1 Snaffling about in the gravel after it's rained.

No.2 Eating

No. 3 Eating spaghetti

No. 4 Eating bread

No. 5 Eating bedding plants

No. 6 Eating flies/ants/worms/snails

No. 7 Swimming

No. 8 Preening

No. 9 Chasing flies, moths and any other bugs that live in the grass

No. 10 Sleeping (it's a hard life being a duck)

See how we've grown

I can't believe how big Splish and Splash have got in the 3 weeks since they hatched! However, judging by the amount they eat and the bedding plants they've demolished I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised :) They've definitely become one of the gang now and run out of the gate in the mornings with the others and head straight for the pond, followed by a scavenge around the garden, preening and then a nap (ducks are real creatures of habit). They've been loving the rain the last few days and have been venturing a bit further, enjoying the bugs and worms that appear when it rains. Someone, or something (and I did blame the ducks) has been in the strawberry patch eating the strawberries as there's been lots of half eaten ones and they're not small nibbles - more like duck divots.... Talking of food, I read somewhere that ducks love spaghetti so last week I gave them some leftovers and they went mad for it!! It was very funny seeing them dive into the spaghetti and then getting it stuck all over their beaks. I suppose it was a bit like eating worms really?!

One week on

Splish and splash (as I've temporarily named them until we know if they're girls or boys) are doing really well. They're loving the pond and we've even seen them diving right down under the water. Dora is definitely getting the hang of motherhood and stands right over them when they are snuggled up next to the pond. Daphne is not quite so snappy with the babies as she was when they were first introduced - I think she's realised that she's going to get a telling off from Dora. However, we're not taking any risks in putting them altogether in the enclosure at night and we've been letting Dora and the babies have the house, which is closed off, and leaving Daphne and Dolly in the enclosure. Daphne has not been happy about this and has twice managed to break into the house via a window (which is quite high for her - we've no idea how she did it based on her heavyweight size :)). The second time she broke in she bashed down a thick piece of cardboard which was secured over the window - it's now got a piece of wooden board across the window to stop her!! We realised that Daphne is desperate to lay an egg in the house which is why she was breaking in, as she laid one on the concrete yesterday and it ended up getting broken. So, last night I put in an old water butt, chopped in half, laid on its side and with some straw put in, as a temporary nesting box for her. Bingo! This morning Daphne was still in the enclosure, not the house, and she had laid an egg in the water butt - what a good girl - and the egg was in perfect condition!

Like ducks to water...

We let the Dora and the babies out into the garden and the pond this morning for the first time. At first they struggled to jump in and out of the pond over the edging but they soon got the hang of it as you can see. Dolly has taken well to the ducklings and hasn't paid them too much attention but Daphne has not taken kindly to the ducklings sharing her pond. We've had to supervise them (it's a hard life :)) whilst they've been out to make sure cats, magpies and Daphne leave them alone but Dora is turning out to be a great Mum, calling for them and coming to their defence. We gave the duck house and run a really good clean out this afternoon as we have only been able to clean round Dora and her nest for weeks now. By the time we finished and put Dora and the ducklings away the ducklings were so tired they were falling asleep on the edge of the pond and then falling in!!

Duckling update

Well, Dora still hadn't moved off her nest tonight so we had to gently shoo her off so we could remove the remaining eggs as (bless her) she was waiting for them to hatch. Sadly, of the 3 eggs remaining one hadn't hatched at all but the other two had dead ducklings which had halfway hatched - I've no idea why this happens?! :( However, on the bright side, we have 2 beautiful, fluffy yellow ducklings which have now followed Dora out to the the food and water. Tomorrow we plan to let them all out of the run and go on the pond (if they want to). We'll have to supervise them closely to start with and be ready with the pond net in case of any problems. Mr 10-t is then going to build a temporary run on the grass for Dora and the babies so they can be out during the day as they need something with netting over the roof as well to stop any magpies or cats taking them.

And then there were two...

Look what I found at lunchtime! Dora still hasn't moved from her nest so I don't know if that's it now or whether there are any others hiding in the nest. Just waiting for her to get up and take her babies for a drink and some food and then I'll relax. Off to smoke a cigar...:)

Duckling!!!

Here's a photo I took this morning - Just the one made it by the looks of things so far but how cute is this?!!!

Hatching update....

This is how Dora has been all day - snuggled up in her nest with only her head showing. She hasn't budged and I've no idea if any eggs have hatched or even if there's ducklings somewhere in there. Something's definitely going on though as she's never gone so long without moving at all.

Meanwhile, Dolly and Daphne are busy doing nothing except lazing next to the pond....

Hurry up Dora and show us what you've got under there - the suspense is killing me!

Pipped egg

I know this is quite hard to see but the left hand egg has just pipped - there's a small hole with a piece of straw looking as if it has come out. (If you click on the photo and enlarge it you can see it really clearly. You can also see an egg on the right has started to pip as well). Will post more photos as and when so watch this space.

Hatching News.....

Well, I've just been to check on the eggs this morning when Dora got off her nest for a stretch and it looks like the eggs are starting to hatch. Two of the eggs have pipped (the first holes/cracks made in the shell) and there is definite movement going on inside the eggs. I will try and post a piccie of the eggs later if/when Dora moves again but in the meantime here's one of some Aylesbury ducklings that I found - hope ours make it through the shells soon!

Dolly, Guard Duck Eggtraordinaire!

Ok, so there's only so many egg jokes I can make but I'm going to make the most of them anyway! Dolly has become our guard duck when it comes to pigeons landing in the garden, and we do seem to get a lot. Any pigeon (or pig-eon as Manuel from Fawlty Towers would say) that dares to land on a nearby tree, swing, patio etc etc is quacked at loudly and then chased by Dolly. She even gets hackles, or the duck equivalent, which I didn't think anything other than dogs got. What makes this funny is that the pigeons take absolutely no notice of her; they even dare to have a wander near the pond which gets right up Dolly's beak!

Talking of the pond, here's a piccie of a very handsome frog (or may be a Prince if you believe in Fairy stories) which I rescued from a cat the other morning. I posed him on a lily pad and he was so grateful to be rescued that he let me take a photo :)

Duckling news: Dora continues to sit on 5 Aylesbury eggs which were candled last weekend and revealed 5 growing ducklings. There's now 2 weeks to go before they hatch so I'm getting very excited!

Egg eggschange

Lots of news this week - we candled the eggs time and time again to try and work out if they were fertile. The general concensus was that all except one weren't fertile. However, the one which was a possibility also had a crack in it (albeit a very small one) and after many discussions we decided that this egg was probably bad as we couldn't see any movement going on inside. To cut a long story short, we have acquired some fertilised Aylesbury duck eggs (see piccie) from a breeder which we have sneakily swopped for the eggs which Dora was sitting on originally. Dora has continued to sit on the nest, none the wiser and now we've just got to be patient.

Dolly continues to be a stubborn so-and-so and has insisted that she lay her eggs in Dora's nest whether Dora is sitting on it or not. Dora, who is in a trance-like state whilst keeping her eggs warm, just sits resolutely, refusing to let Dolly get to her.

Daphne is definitely top bird now and has taken the lead since Dave's demise. Dolly now follows Daphne everywhere and if Daphne's preening then so is Dolly. Neither of the girls are wandering in the garden much now, prefering to stay near to the pond - not sure if this the memory of the fox at the far reaches of the garden or whether it's the lack of a male to protect them; probably a bit of both.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Here's Daphers making use of the available resources this morning. Dora's not keen on anyone else sitting in the duck house so Daphne's sitting on what must be a very uncomfortable conifer.

No news on the egg candling front yet, I'm afraid. We made a very amateurish attempt with the lounge lamp and a loo roll yesterday evening with no success (I'm sure the ducks had a laugh about this while our backs were turned!). However, we've ordered an extra bright torch off the internet now so once we have that we'll give it another go. No sign of the fox since Friday night, thank goodness, but we're stressing ourselves out checking we can see the ducks all the time. We put them to bed extra early yesterday despite their protests - Dolly in particular was not best pleased.

Evil Fox

Just had a visit from the evil fox about 30 minutes ago. He has obviously got the scent of the ducks now - fortunately I had just put the ducks away. Looks like we're going to have to put the ducks in well before dark. Mr 10-toer is fortifying the enclosure as I write... not going to sleep well tonight.

Sad News

Unfortunately I have some very sad news - Dave has gone missing, presumed taken by a fox. He was let out with the others this morning and went missing shortly afterwards. There's absolutely no trace of him, no feathers left or anything, and we've searched the garden (and neighbours) but the only explanation is that a fox has taken him. We're all absolutely gutted and can't believe that a fox has had the brass neck to take him in broad daylight. We're worried for the others now that a fox knows that there are ducks wandering about here, especially with some possible ducklings on the way. The females look lost without him and have been very quiet today, sitting close to the house and the pond. We're all going to miss him - let's hope his legacy is in Dora's nest.

Are ducklings on the way?

Well, Dora has been sitting on her nest for a week now and refuses to budge until her stomach gets the better of her. We've managed to have a look at the eggs and there were 7 in there yesterday which we marked with a black pen - this was after reading up on the internet that you should remove the subsequent eggs once the duck has started sitting so that you give the others a better chance. Today when I looked again there was another egg so I guiltily removed it from the nest, you wouldn't believe how warm it was! At the weekend we plan to candle the eggs to see which ones are fertile (if any). Here's hoping that at least 3 or 4 are fertile as I'm getting very excited at the thought of Dora bringing out her ducklings in a few weeks. Anyway here's a picture of some runner ducklings - perhaps Dora's will look like this (although she could be sitting on one of the other female's eggs). Will let you know what the candling reveals....

Eggciting News!!!

Dora has been sitting on 4 eggs for the last 3 days now, only getting up for a quick drink, food and a preen. Here's a picture of her looking very proud of her beautiful nest, every inch the protective mum. We're all hoping she sticks with it and that at least one of the eggs is fertilised so we can have some ducklings. Watch this space......

Dora, Dora, Dora The Explorer

Ok, so if you don't have a mini 10-toer you probably don't know who Dora The Explorer is and you haven't had to put up with her irritating voice and pregnant pauses, but in our house Dora The Explorer is often on TV, speaking Spanish and..... exploring. The theme tune, the title of this post, is equally annoying, reverberating around your head for hours after you've heard it. However, since one of our ducks is named after her we are all in the habit of singing this song to Dora the duck, somehow expecting her to know what we're on about. Dora doesn't care, any attention means that we must be about to give her food and she quacks back at us in the hope that we've got something tasty.

Dora is an apricot runner and the biggest character in our paddling of ducks. Permanently hungry, fearless, and very quick, Dora doesn't miss a trick, watching the back of the house for signs of any movement of us 10-toers through the window. She also has amazing hearing and if I clatter about in the kitchen or run the tap for any length of time she'll stand on the back step and quack loudly until I open the back door, knowing that I'll give in a throw her a bit of bread. Dora is also very partial to slugs and snails; only last weekend I watched in amazement as she gulped down a whole snail which you could see going down her neck (due to the snail's large size and her thin neck). Dora has also been known to catch frogs which she gets particularly excited about, running off to the other side of the garden with it so that she can keep it to herself, the other ducks in hot pursuit (well, Daphne and Dave trying really hard!). Needless to say we have managed to rescue most of the frogs that she's caught, I'm not sure even Dora could manage to swallow a whole one. Dora is also the only one of the ducks to take food from our hands and is the fastest duck in the west when it comes to 'who can get to the bread first' when throwing it to all of them. Often, Dave, Dolly and Daphne get bored with trying and head back to the pond when they realise that they're not going to get a look in whilst Dora's about. Dora might not have much in common with her Spanish counterpart but she's definitely the star of the show in our back garden (I know you're not supposed to have favourites but........)

The Great Eggscape

Since the clocks went forward the daily duck routine has changed slightly; they're used to watching me change their water and fill up their food, followed by me herding them back into their enclosure before it gets dark. However, now the daylight has increased I've found myself letting them stay up a bit later despite feeding them at roughly the same time. This has thrown them completely, and Dolly in particular has developed a stubborn streak now she's realised that she doesn't have to go in at feeding time. Dolly is a German streicher, mainly white with a grey/black beak and black markings on her wings, she's Dora's partner in crime and tends to let Dora take the lead before following close behind. That was until lately...

Dolly has decided that if I'm heading for the duck house and looking as if I might be about to herd them in, she heads in the opposite direction which could be towards the compost heap at the other end of the garden or, more usually, she gets into the pond and resolutely refuses to get out. Anyway, after another evening of cajoling Dolly back into the enclosure where her obedient friends were waiting, the gate was closed. Or so we thought. Nearly 2 hours later when Mr 10-toer was partaking of an afterdinner smoke (ok,ok, 'aving a fag') and wandering outside in the garden he discovered the ducks swimming nonchalantly on the pond in the pitch black. Now, I had two immediate theories about how this happened:

a) Mr 10-t hadn't shut the gate at all.

b) Somebody had come into our garden and let our ducks out.

I favoured a) - hard day at work, tired, got distracted - this seemed the most plausible. Mr 10-t, however, was absolutely adamant that he had shut the gate. So we agreed to disagree.

It seems though that neither theories were right. A couple of days later, Mr 10-t went to let the ducks out in the morning and found Dolly ramming the gate with her head. Obviously, the sight of the pond and garden beyond had forced a disgruntled Dolly to take action the other night. No mean feat when you consider the door is 6ft high with a steel frame and wire across it. We're thinking of entering Dolly into a World's Strongest Duck competition.... (oh, and added a padlock onto the gate too, in case you're wondering).

Spring has sprung!

Spring has definitely arrived - the trees are in blossom, the tadpoles are swimming and Dave is feeling amorous. Dave is our Pekin duck who has lived with us since last September along with his girls: Dora, Dolly and Daphne. Dave is unusual in the duck world as he's not keen on water and only reluctantly steps into the pond for a preen occasionally [This leaves me with no choice but to draw comparison with my two teenagers of the male variety :)]. Dave rarely swims in the pond, spending a lot of time just watching the other 3 swimming about, but when he does he has a very unusual technique, looking as if he might capsize at any time. At the moment Dave's focus takes the form of Daphne, a very beautiful crested Appleyard. Daphne is good looking and she knows it. A much less upright shaped duck than the other two girls, she has gorgeous patterned plumage and accessorises this with a matching crest on the top of her head. If she could wear lipstick and carry a handbag she probably would. However, its a case of you can look but don't touch as Daphne does her best to shun Dave's advances at all times. This is extremely comical as Dave and Daphne are the least agile of all the ducks. Dave's centre of gravity is so low that in his quest for love (when he's trying to run after Daphne) he has been known to fall over. This requires one of us 10-toers to roll him back onto his side so that he can get himself up as, if you've ever seen a duck on his back, there's no way he would ever be able to do this himself. Daphne, on the other hand, can't really run at all. She has very short legs and an extremely rotund body which makes her look as if she is never hassled and always does everything very slowly, serenely and in her own time. It's a good job Dave's not so agile otherwise poor Daphne would have no chance!