British Expats - Christmas Ducklings due any day soon.

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Christmas Ducklings due any day soon.

Please meet Boo and Woo, our pair of Pekin Ducks.

We've had Woo since he was a teenager. He came with two brothers and a sister and all four of them proceeded to destroy the garden , drill holes in the lawn, nick next doors pegs, chase the cats and poop indiscriminately. You couldn't move for feathers. They'd come when called and give you quack, back chat, attitude when rounded up for the night.

Once they grew into adult hoodlums , it was time for Woo to wave a white wing bye bye to his siblings and they were taken to spend many a happy hour on a large pond owned by a deer farming family, the son of which has invited Phil to go pig hunting & who suppies us with completely free range organic eggs.. They needed a bit of new stock for their couple of pekin ducks and drakes and we gained Boo duck.

I'm not sure that Mr and Mrs Deer Farmer were quite ready for our lads and ladette. Last thing we heard, they have taken to visiting the neighbouring farms having utilised a run off pipe as an escape tunnel. Last time but one , they took the lone peacock with them as a decoy. We could only breathe a sigh of relief & congratulate ourselves that we were down to two. Two is manageable . Four is havoc, chaos , a daily riot.

Not that Boo and Woo became Mr and Mrs Perfect. Woo taught Boo how to escape from their penned off area of the garden , by running, full pelt, head down low to 'duck' under the small space between the gate and the path. We know this because me and him staked them out one evening, hiding around the corner of the garage. The course of true love had not been running smoothly as we played the blame game with each other . Each thinking the other had left the gate off the latch , whilst the other had come along to shut it.

That evening proved Woo had a mind of his own & no pesky person was keeping him from showing his new bride the joys of next doors pegs or how to put the bloke with the 22 duck-shooting rifle firmly in his place, by crapping on his garage floor.

Given their reckless , thrill seeking, behaviour it's no wonder then that in the best of pekin duck circles they are considered to make poor parents & so the chances of a nest being sett is very unlikely.

We've witnessed this ourselves. Boo wantonly plopping her eggs out, one a day, as carelessly as you please at whichever spot she happens to be standing in when 'the moment' approaches. By next doors peg basket , in the car port, smack in the middle of the lawn, whats left of the lawn that is. An egg was even found in the bottom of their little blue sandpit pond.

Unless a duck egg is incubated it remains unfertilised , so they are safe to eat or cook with, if fresh. Egg watch was set up. We all kept our eyes peeled. Finders keepers was the rule as duck eggs make good cakes & neighbours forgave the odd chewed peg and calling card when they found one between their gumboots or in the cat dish.

Those people that want ducklings normally whisk any egg straight into foster care via a broody chicken or incubator . We weren't up for that malarky , so we were safe. Boo and Woo had other ideas........