Little Bills and Feet

Four ducklings have hatched now, rather than the 5 I had deduced from the number of eggshells I thought I'd counted! They've been out in the run today but haven't eaten anything yet. I'm finding ducks very different to hens and I wasn't sure whether I should take John out in case he picked on the babes but scouring the internet, the consensus seems to be that it should be fine, so I've kept him in with the family. I hope Jean knows what she's doing :-/ ducks seem a bit thick compared to hens. Or perhaps I'm worrying too much....it wouldn't be the first time. They have dabbled around in the mud and been shown the water:

As you can see, they are all different colours ranging from blonde to dark, so I'm not sure what colours they'll end up. Both their parents are mallards which is the dominant colour, but depending on their parentage, who knows! I moved the run yesterday to give them fresh ground, and the local dunnock population have been recycling the downy feathers that Jean plucked out to line her nest to go and line theirs with - I keep seeing them flying round with beakfuls of tiny white feathers.

Hooray, the sun's out! I must check my bees this week to see if all the queens are laying. One of the hives is very small now and the poor weather has not helped, so I need to check they're all ok. The swarm I brought back from Ann's looks good from all the activity at the hive entrance, and they are bringing in pollen which is what they use to feed the baby bees so I'm hopeful that they have started to build up the colony. I did get stung yesterday when I lent on a bee who'd chosen to sit on the broody coop as I was moving it - it's the first time this year and unfortunately it's my knitting hand! Help! I am about a third of the way through the second sock so I need to keep up the momentum. I bought some fabric tape with "Made by Me" embroidered on it so I can put one in the back of my Owl Jumper as I keep having to look for the back decreases to find out which way to put it on!

I've been busy in the garden trying to hold back the couch grass from taking over my borders. I have to do it when the chickens aren't looking though as they come along and scuff up my neatly cut edges and send precious soil all over the lawn. The girls spent yesterday afternoon banging away at wood in the carport and have built a large square structure which appears to need to live in my study. Amber is going to tidy her room today so she can have it in her room, which presumably will happen at the same time as the squadron of pigs fly over, or Hell gets chilly ;-)

Ducklings

Well it's been a long wait but - at last!

Are they not the most adorable little creatures?? There are 3 more eggs so we'll see if they hatch :-)

We visited Arundel WWT yesterday and there were ducklings there too! Lovely.

Today I took Amber and Rose to the Owl and Sewing Cat to get materials for bunting. They have a very good tutorial on their blog - I know it's really straightforward but sometimes, a bit like needing the recipe for a Victoria sponge, it's reassuring to have someone telling you what to do. And, joy of joys, it was probably the most relaxing and un-stressful sewing session I have ever had with the girls, and we now have 4 metres of Jubilee-friendly bunting with some left over to do more. I even christened my new-to-me ironing board to press the flags which was remarkably pleasant after my 4 year break from the hot flat thing.

John is sitting guarding the entrance to the Dinky Duck House and earlier was sitting inside with his wife and children. It made me feel a bit sorry for Blossom, the single teenage mum with her 5 chicks but she is doing really well and the chicks are getting the hunched vulture look as they've got their wing feathers but are still downy everywhere else.

Ducklings! :-)

Smallholders show

Another lovely day. I baked cinnamon buns for breakfast and we got ready to go to Ardingly. I was feeling a bit intrepid as I went years ago but have not been for some time, and a lot of these things can end up appealing more to the hoi polloi (aka chavs) and I was a bit worried that it would be rather a poor relation of the SOES. The older two were being teeneager-ish and didn't want to come as of course there was Glee and Hollyoaks omnibus on T4 so fine, 2 less mouths to feed!

Anyway I was not disappointed :-) the Smallholders Show is much smaller than the South of England, and more manageable really, with lots of farm animals, poultry, and rabbits and guineas.  Poor Charles who has been desperately trying to dissuade me from buying a duckling was getting rather worried but I had purposely left the crate out of the boot of the car so I couldn't buy anything. There were really good bookshops and one place selling HomeFarmer mag back copies at £1 each - bargain.

Rose with some sheep

A veritable duckling-fest

I was in heaven

We enjoyed frozen yogurt in cones and then after a long discussion, we went back to the animal pens...poor Charles....

Meet John and Jean!!

They are 12 week old grey call ducks - how absolutely wonderfully adorable are they?? Of course, the duck people had boxes to put them in so they are now home in the run I finished earlier this morning so as to have as a spare one should anything need isolating. Hmm, oh well, anything ill will have to come indoors. John and Jean were my paternal grandparents and in the tradition of naming my poultry after my grannies and grandpas these two have got the last two names available! They are just lovely and very small and calm. They've got a seed tray to bathe in but I do have a tin bath I nicked borrowed off Laura, so how sweet will that look. I am a very happy bunny :-)

South of England Show

Well, I have not been to the South of England Agricultural Show for some time and the forecast wasn't great but we were looking forward to it all the same. T was sleeping over at his friend Joel's house, so we only needed to provide lunch for the girls - in other words, enough for small family rather than an army.

We arrived at the showground in good time and headed for the tea section for the first round of refuelling:

Then it was off to see some animals :-)

We stopped off at the Hound Show first where, as part of the judging, the hounds were released - presumably to show off their movement and ability to chase biscuits and sniff things they shouldn't.

Organised chaos in the Hound Showing Ring

We then headed over to the cattle show rings, which were conveniently close to another tea tent. There were some beautiful Charolais and Sussex cattle:

Sussex Cows being judged

Championship Charolais beef cattle

We also went past the pigs:

More organised chaos

It was starting to try to rain so we headed for the Fur and Feathers tent to get some 'ahhhh how sweeeet!!!' out of our system as my companions had thus far not joined me in thinking the cows were adorable for some reason.

Amber with prize-winning Brahma

I was not allowed to take these home

We stopped for a spot of lunch on wet seats and then started to make our way back to the Red Entrance which seemed to be diagonally opposite where we were. But no matter - Amber got to milk a real lifesize plastic cow called Buttercup:

Quite the milkmaid

And Rosie got to stroke a pig:

So I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

I'm going to try making some rose petal jelly as my roses are so gorgeous it seems such a waste to throw them into the wormery, even though I am having as many as I can in vases.  Well, I say vases; random vessels and beer bottles with pretty labels but it still seems a waste. I have only made jelly once before and it was like trying to get a knife through a trampoline - I think I had over-estimated the time it took to reach setting point. Watch this space...