We are allotment duck and chicken keepers based on Wirral, Near Liverpool. We have been keeping our fluffy friends since March 2010, and are therefore quite new to... well, just about everything. It has been an eventful year and I hope to illustrate some of the experiences we have had so far, which have kept us on our toes, and very much entertained this year.
We took over someones allotment with their existing elderly Warrens and some sort of Silkie crosses (with what we have no idea!). We then went to the auction and bought five Marrans, two Call ducks and two Khaki Campbells.
As the year went on we increased our 'family' in several ways. We borrowed a very basic incubator and successfully hatched three Call Ducks. Buoyed by our success we bought an all singing all dancing incubator from ebay, and then we went into production.
Our neighbour had lost some of his chickens to the local fox population, and we hatched some Copper Marans for him. We also tried eggs from ebay and produced five lovely lemon millefleur sablepoot bantams, (who are just the sweetest birds I have ever encountered), three White Stars (to go with our two Amber Stars).
We were given some Lavender Pekin Bantam eggs by a neighbouring allotment holder, who hatched without any trouble, but the Lavender Araucana only managed to hatch one chick. She looked like Big Bird along side the Lavender Pekins, and they all huddled underneath her when you approched the brooder.
We were also given a trio of Indian Runner Ducks, although we had to pen them separetely from the other ducks as they were rather snooty and completely took over the duck house!
We have recently acquired three Muscovy ducks, who lay surprisingly small eggs considering their body weight. But real characters.
Our main concern at the moment is keeping their drinking water frm freezing over. It is a real battle, and although the last few days the weather has been a "little less cold" as the weathermen put it, but by next weekend we will be going down to below zero again. Deep joy!
Great blog,lets have more pictures ! Ian
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