Ok so far I haven't done too well at keeping this blog up to date, I have had no shortage of ideas simply a shortage of time. A spell of sunny weather provided a chance to get some planting done in the garden
and our helper Jane has been looking to buy a house here so we have spent some time helping her with that, and of course because nothing happens quickly here so it is an ongoing process. I have no complaints though, poking around old houses is great fun, it is only Spanish bureaucracy that can be a little tedious.
We have also had a bit of a disaster with our duck breeding plans. We had our first brood of baby ducks last summer and the mother was very good at keeping tabs on the babies and protecting them from all comers, all we had to do was provide her with somewhere separate to sleep at night so that the ducklings didn't get trampled by the bigger ducks.
Muscovy eggs take about 35 days to hatch so when this duck had been sitting for 35 days I was quite excited by the time she had been there for 40 days I had decided that the eggs hadn't been fertile and was waiting for a chance to throw them away, we were pretty busy and I didn't get real get the chance till three days later we came home and found random ducklings all over the garden but no mother. I raced over to try and find the mother and round up the ducklings in itself a fairly impossible task. It turned out that the mother was back in the nest but for some reason hadn't waited for the babies. I managed to rescue 7 and got them back to her, not easy as she attacked me every time I appeared with another one. I was too late for the remaining 3 sadly. It quickly became apparent that she panicked and ran off every time there was a threat leaving the poor duckings trailing behind. The other ducks started grabbing the scattered duckings and running off with them. Chasing a duck round the garden with a ducking in its beak is exhausting if amusing for the onlooker. Amazingly the duckings survived the raids but didn't survive being left in the cold and wet when mum disappeared.
When we got down to four duckings we decided to put her in the spare rabbit cage where she and the babies were safe. Not a permanent solution nor ideal as she needs to show the babies how to get on in the big wide world. Haven't decided on the next step yet. Its all a bit traumatic for for me and has caused more than one duck related nightmare.
Better news with the rabbits though, I initially thought that mummy rabbit had only two surviving babies when we found a dead one in the cage. Its impossible to check properly as rabbits cannot be disturbed when there is a new litter or they kill and eat the babies. When they emerged into the sunshine yesterday there were six fat and healthy babies. Six is still a small litter but it is way better than two.
At times like this I begin to wonder why we describe our lifestyle as simple, surely a quick trip to Sainsburys for a shrink wrapped pack of chicken breasts fits the description better.
and our helper Jane has been looking to buy a house here so we have spent some time helping her with that, and of course because nothing happens quickly here so it is an ongoing process. I have no complaints though, poking around old houses is great fun, it is only Spanish bureaucracy that can be a little tedious.
We have also had a bit of a disaster with our duck breeding plans. We had our first brood of baby ducks last summer and the mother was very good at keeping tabs on the babies and protecting them from all comers, all we had to do was provide her with somewhere separate to sleep at night so that the ducklings didn't get trampled by the bigger ducks.
Muscovy eggs take about 35 days to hatch so when this duck had been sitting for 35 days I was quite excited by the time she had been there for 40 days I had decided that the eggs hadn't been fertile and was waiting for a chance to throw them away, we were pretty busy and I didn't get real get the chance till three days later we came home and found random ducklings all over the garden but no mother. I raced over to try and find the mother and round up the ducklings in itself a fairly impossible task. It turned out that the mother was back in the nest but for some reason hadn't waited for the babies. I managed to rescue 7 and got them back to her, not easy as she attacked me every time I appeared with another one. I was too late for the remaining 3 sadly. It quickly became apparent that she panicked and ran off every time there was a threat leaving the poor duckings trailing behind. The other ducks started grabbing the scattered duckings and running off with them. Chasing a duck round the garden with a ducking in its beak is exhausting if amusing for the onlooker. Amazingly the duckings survived the raids but didn't survive being left in the cold and wet when mum disappeared.
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| The world through bars |
When we got down to four duckings we decided to put her in the spare rabbit cage where she and the babies were safe. Not a permanent solution nor ideal as she needs to show the babies how to get on in the big wide world. Haven't decided on the next step yet. Its all a bit traumatic for for me and has caused more than one duck related nightmare.
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| Tapas |
Better news with the rabbits though, I initially thought that mummy rabbit had only two surviving babies when we found a dead one in the cage. Its impossible to check properly as rabbits cannot be disturbed when there is a new litter or they kill and eat the babies. When they emerged into the sunshine yesterday there were six fat and healthy babies. Six is still a small litter but it is way better than two.
At times like this I begin to wonder why we describe our lifestyle as simple, surely a quick trip to Sainsburys for a shrink wrapped pack of chicken breasts fits the description better.
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