Introducing the Quackers and the Muppets...
These are Magpie ducks, bred by putting a Runner duck and a Belgium Black River duck together (don't ask which one the drake is, I don't know). One of mine, Gethin, is, as you see, more Mallard looking than Magpie. I'm pretty sure the breader the eggs came from had one go to her Magpie hens by accident, but she says it's merely a mutation. He's lovely anyway, helped out of his shell when he hatched because he was becoming exhausted, and therefore of great sentimental value. The only hen, Ava, is too, because I watched her hatch almost from start to finish (an truly amazing thing to watch by the way). The two on the far side of the dividing mesh Tegwyn and Lewis, have been brought up, along with the drake with the stripe on his head, as brothers. They are seperate because they were attacking Gethin and trying too often to mount Ava. Now they're allowed out again, they'll soon be in the far side of the fruit beds, with lots of path to graze. It is my intention to fence off the veg beds individually to allow the flock the paths there too.
The Muppets consist of nine hens of various ages and most if not all are of mixed breeds. There's Ruth and Sapphera, the oldest. Mosie, a former battery hen. Grace, a former stray. Jamie and Joanna, the bantams. And Pippa, April and Olive, hatched the year before last from a batch given by my allotment neighbour when Joanna went violently broody and I let her sit on eggs. They live in an entirely meshed enclosure at the bottom of the first allotment, which I hope to extend into what is now a fruit bed. I have the first uprights for this and plan to get hold of more wood and the mesh through this year to have it ready when the fruit finishes for the year in October, November. Assuming we don't have another outbreak of bird flu!
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