The male Indian runners have started with their hormones.I have 10 female ducks and 8 drakes which is not a good ratio to have. The males will often gang rape and possibly kill females in season, so it is better to have fewer males if at all possible. So today I have visited every local village pond to see if the pond "caretakers" will take my drakes.I eventually spoke to Gary, the Trelogan village pond owner who pointed me out to another local chap who agreed to take 5 of my more ardent boys. It was also nice to speak to another happy amateur who is developing his own contribution to village life. I have agreed to breed him some female runners to augment his flock in the spring.I will get one of the broody hens to sit on the eggs.....I couldn't face another tiny flock of ducklings in the kitchen again..cute as buttons but dirty as little pigs!
This afternoon I also arranged for the White cockerel in Bunny's enclosure to be collected and because the weather was so cold I finished cleaning out the cupboards in the kitchen.(even I can get sick of the cold!) I also caught up with Nu who was having a slightly better day than she has had of late and finally got to the barbers for a haircut......yes my life is one heady whirl of excitement!
"One heady whirl of excitement"...how funny you are! It's interesting learning about your poultry.What do you do with ducks? Eat them or their eggs? There was an expression my mother used to say, "What do you know about milking ducks?" Not possible, right? Tasted my first home grown eggs this past summer from my friend's hens. I could not believe the difference in taste from the store bought eggs.Now I'm spoiled and Phx store eggs taste (& smell) bad. Sorry for rambling on. Have a good day!
ReplyDeleteRunner ducks have no meat on them at all so are bred for their eggs (and their looks)...the females should all kick in with laying by around March!
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