Covatutto 12

My incubator has arrived!!!!. Looking like a retro 1950's lamp, the grandly sounding Covatutto 12 comes with detailed instructions of how to incubate any egg from a quail to a goose. The whole palava is incredably complicated.....the eggs have to placed just so. You are not to clean them with too much water and need to cool them and turn then on particular days and not on others Humidity has to be just so as does the cleanliness so simply bunging them in the airing cupboard ( as I did when I was 10) just won't wash.,Duck eggs in particular can be tricky so seeing that I am working all day tomorrow I am going to practice with a few hens eggs on sunday!

With Duncan and Stanley rogering the majority of the girls senseless, I know that some of the daily egg production will be fertile. I am also trying to remove the eggs from the nest boxes every few hours as one of the girls is getting terribly broody. Trinny (below) is a maternally challenged hen and will sit for hours if left, pecking any approaching hand to protect her "clutch" I have read that it is ok to dip a broody hen's bum in a bucket of cold water to prevent this maternal stage from continuing but it does seem a little drastic.to me.

I have spent most of the day extending the potato patch, and in the process I have been taming the ducks who still remain slightly skittish. Digging allowed me to collect a whole jam jar full of worms, and it didnt't take Maude and Nell long to realise that these titbits were picked just for them. So when I gave them a low whistle, I would wag a fat worm surreptitiously at them ( so that the hens wouldn't notice) then saunter over to the wire before bunging the worm quick sticks at them. If I mistimed the throw then a passing hen would muscle in to the feeding frenzy and would bully the gentle and slower ducks, but after a few practice throws, we got rather good at the game.

The more I watch the ducks,, with their small piggy eyes and happy expressions, the more I warm to them. especially the benign females.Their new enclosure should be up and running when Steve finishes the top of my field, and hopefully by then I will have a few hardy adolescent ducklings to join them.
Out again tomorrow after work! am going to a girl's leaving do in Prestatyn so no blog tomorrow! It has been a busy social week!