A Duck's Diary from the Jinney Ring Craft Centre

Just some of the stuff that I see here!



Friday 30 April 2010

Some good, some bad

Sadly the 17 ducklings are now down to only 6.  The Moorhens have been particularly vicious this year and far worse that the crows (Mick, the site manager, did manage to "pepper" one of the crows so this probably put them off a bit). The big problem was that our Mother Duck just had too much to do watching all ot the babies once they started to get active! The good news is that 6 appears to be a managable number and Mum is particularly protective over them so they are growing up quite fast.

Stop Press - 32 new ducklings have just appeared in the cage in the garden - they have been incubated from the eggs rescued from around the Centre Gardens so should fit in well once they have grown a bit.  They are staying warm via a hot lamp (and by cuddling up).  There is a mixture of parentage to be seen, some yellows but quite a lot of blacks, greys and of course some mallards.

Come and see them before they get too big!

Everyone is talking about the forthcoming election in the garden at the moment - we are not too sure how the "cuts" will affect our corn supply or bread from the customers and we are a little bit worried.....

On Polling night they are holding a special "political" supper in the restaurant - no talk - just dishes that will have political names - could be fun as long as there is some for us too.  £12 for 2 courses.

Saturday 24 April 2010

How will she manage all these ducklings?

We have had our suspicions for a while now that one of the group was about to have a family - she has been missing at meal times and was no where to be seen.  Now we can see why... she has 17 ducklings under her wing and is trying very hard to keep control of them all at once - not an easy task.  There are alsorts of things for her to worry about - Moorhens (who are frightful bullies and jealous types), carion crow, foxes and people (who can get too close and step on them).
Looking at her brood she has clearly had a wild time of it with  black ones as well as all the yellows (which will be whites).

Rumour also has it that there are more on the way elsewhere - more ducks sitting and some of their eggs have also dissapeared into the incubator.

Now that the weather has improved and the evenings are a lot lighter we are seeing a lot more activity in the gardens and elsewhere.  This week there was a very smelly Curry Night in the restaurant on Thursday.   

Saturday and Sundays are nice too - several visitors are walking or cycling out early to have breakfast with us in the garden (9:30 - 11:45 Sat & Sun)

Coming up there is a Spanish night and a beer festival in May (in the gardens).  Should be fun - we love people watching (especially when they bring us bread).