Ducks begin to lay (From Smallholder)

Ducks begin to lay

9:07am Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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Liz Wright shares her weekend - to read more and add comments go to Editor's Blog Sunday 7 March was officially a sunny day and here at least in East Anglia it was almost warm if you stood in the sun around midday. Today was more of a disappointment. As I fed the animals this morning I noticed that the dear hens had pulled up a daffodil bulb (don’t let anyone tell you that gardening and free range hens mix – only if you have very large well established plants). I went to push it back in the ground by poking my fingers into the earth and nearly broke them. It was as hard as rock and fully frozen and remained so all day long. No wonder the grass looks depressed and the buds are only promising (but not delivering) to come out.

But yesterday was glorious. And I didn’t have anywhere in particular to be and although there was lots to do, nothing was absolutely demanding. It goes without saying that the poultry, ponies and outside cats have to be fed, and let out and cleaned out (depending on species!).

Then I collected the eggs. The old girls (four years old) are now laying two eggs a day between four of them, fairly respectable, and the cross bred young hens are laying everywhere and anywhere.

So once again we have a bit of a surplus of eggs. But best news of all, the Abacot Ranger ducks have started laying at last. Two moderate sized, pointy ended duck eggs were in their duck pen when I let them out on Sunday. I’m going to keep a count of how many they lay – there are just two girls.