And then there were 11

Last weekend was the poultry auction in Salisbury and we made the mistake of going. I have always wanted a white duck and there were listed a few runners including three white females, so we went along - we now have Jemima and Jessica.

Jessica has taken a while to settle and seemed to be pining for a couple of days as she would stand and stare into space, but has settled down now.

She is a bit of a loner still and a bit of a perfectionist in her appearance. She is careful not to get muddy and spends ages preening herself.












Jemima on the other hand is a real mud-bunny. If there is any mud she will be digging in it so here is a picture of her at the auction before we brought her home.

The only difference between them is that Jemima has a black line on her beak and Jesica has slightly more orange feet.



Now, I hear you say, seven ducks plus Jessica and Jemima only makes none. Well, a slight problem at the auction was that we couldn't agree on which white ducks to get as I loved the Indian Runners but we had discussed having a couple of Campbell's as a contingency for the winter as they generally lay all year round. There were three lots of two female White Campbell's so.......






Daisy and Maisy

Maisy is in the front with the pinker beak. They look down their beaks a bit at the Runners and can't understand why they are so scatty and have to run everywhere, but they soon learned that they know the best spots to forage and where to lay your eggs.


One of the problems we have now is that we are averaging between 5 and 8 eggs a day but they look so lovely as there are so many shades of duck egg blue and white. The Campbell's lay slightly smaller eggs as are very white compared to the others.




Now for the allotment. Everything is slowing down with the cold weather. The greenhouse if full to bursting with seeds started off, including some carrots in pots, a couple of tubs of early potatoes and salad leaves. So, when we were helping at the allotment shop at Old Basing last week, and I spotted a sign saying greenhouse available, there was no alternative but to ring.

We are putting it on the area still covered with black plastic on 51 so the two greenhouses will face each other.

We have got the frame up and hope to have the glass in by the end of the week.

We have spent the last two days helping Matthew and Rebecca move from Wimbledon to Tonbridge (including a lorry load of plants) and it was lovely to see them in their new home, but back to the reality of greenhouse building tomorrow.