Notice to newcomers - part 4

Wol2

Oooh Tixy....... I love your ducklings.....(makes mental note to check if deeds forbid ducks as well as chickens )

A few years ago two Aylesbury ducks escaped from the school up the road and decided to live chez Wol (owing to the proximity of the stream me thinks). The female built two nests () by the front door in the flower bed and every morning for about three weeks I was woken up at 5am by this pallaver of quacking underneath my bedroom window By the time she'd finished, she had laid at least 10 eggs in each nest :eek::eek:
Then she and her other half started sitting on the eggs but a few days later, the fox came and ate them all. That morning (5 am).....a very very distressed mummy ducky was walking up and down the road outside my house.........well..."wailing" is the only way I can describe it.....it was heartbreaking to hear..........but then she WAS a bit of a silly billy to build her nest in such an obvious and accessible place :rolleyes:

Needless to say, they didn;t come back

Tixy

They do seem very vulnerable and tiny at the moment. Luckily for all the lack of intelligence hens make good mothers and she has been getting very cross with anything getting too close in the yard (geese, hens, ducks, cats :eek:). Though mostly the other birds have been out in the fields .

We don't need anymore hens for a year or 2 so this is her only opportunity to be a mother for a while at least. She is very pleased with herself!

Poor visiting ducks losing their eggs like that. We have lost chicks and babies in the past to foxes and other predators but hopefully she won't wander too far with these. I don't know about the 2 nests thing and whether that is normal -both of ours often lay in just 1 nest at different times of the day.

Not a bird bath Horace - they start with a shallow dustbin lid, then graduate to a paddling pool before going on to the proper ponds!

Horace

We get tornadoes fairly frequently up here - its tornado alley:rolleyes: In fact we get more tornadoes in the UK than anywhere else in the world and that's a fact:D

We are expecting it to be hotter by Thursday up to 34 degrees and its about 18 degrees at night:eek:but its cooling down at the weekend.

Anyway Wol..Numpty might be able to cook when he comes down to stay, he has a new book:cool:

I bake in my flat...its just too warm.

Tixy

I think its going to rain here on Thurs (well the bbc wesite thinks it is). I don't like complaining about our summer considering how short it is but I do hate hot nights and I am too scared to have many windows open at night as I think monsters might get me

I have never seen a tornado (not even a little one that doesn't touch the ground).

Numpty_Monkey

Good morning all

Lula-Hula

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

Good morning all

Morning all at a far more respectable time ^ :rolleyes:

Horace

Morning all...Its really muggy here and although I keep my window open (its not open wide as I don't want to let the bob owlers in) I still can't sleep at night. I feel permanently drained and now have a touch of delhi belly and I don't even eat curry:rolleyes:

I love dry heat but hate muggy humid wet heat:rolleyes:

Numpty_Monkey

Well according to the weather forcast we should have thunderstorms later

Nargleblast

Way oh Way oh feel it hot hot hot!!!! Just think of the good effect of all that vitamin D on your bones!!! And you don't have to fork out for heating costs!!!!

Horace

I hardly ever put the heating on anyway..its muggy and there are jaspers to contend with during the day and bob owlers at night:rolleyes: