White Duck and Bumble bees

With one exception, all the ducks on the Rectoryreserve are Call ducks. These are direct descendents of the wild Mallard and are thought to have originated in Holland where they are still known as Decoy ducks. They were originally used to entice wild ducks to enter large funnel traps. Later hunters tethered them close to gunning stations to lure wild ducks within shooting range. It was probably the only breed in history selected for its voice, which is uniquely high pitched and carries over long distances (which made them invaluable to hunters); they talk fast and furiously, the hens often all at once, as if laughing and chuckling at some shared joke. Nowadays they are bred mainly for decoration and show; on the Rectoryreserve they provide hours of distraction, amusement and entertainment as they busy themseves bustling hither and thither with great vim and vigour, usually making the most tremendous racket - needless to say, we see very few wild ducks around here.


However, the White Duck is an exception - to most rules of nature. She is an Aylesbury cross Pekin and was bred (as are many thousands each year) to grace the dinner table. Bred for meat and flavour, she is four or five times the size of the little Calls and, rather than 'chatter' she makes large, insistent honking quacks. That she is with us is a bit of a miracle. Her kinsfolk live only for 7 weeks before they are collected from their sheds in the early hours of the morning and taken away to be prepared for their culinary destiny. White duck, along with two males, managed to escape being caught. We re-homed them all (by coincidence the man who made our Chicken Shack worked at the farm where these ducks were reared and he was 'keeping an eye' on the escapees when we met him to collect the Shack, so we agreed to take them off his hands). Unfortunately, the male ducks died within a few months, but White Duck is now 3 or 4 years old. Bred to have a large breast and plenty of meat on her, at first she could only waddle a short distance quite slowly. Certainly, had she tried to swim in those early days she would have sunk under her own weight. Just as well we only had a large puddle at the time. Over the next year she gradually got fitter and more active and, to our great surprise, started laying eggs; she lays one very large white egg almost every day. The hens seem to consider her a superior species - if they spot the eggs before we do, they destroy them.
Unlike the Call ducks, she always comes for titbits and competes very successfully with all the chickens. Rather than look at the ground to see what's fallen, she looks up at me to see what's coming and if its pasta or bread everyone else had better get out of her way!

What's the connection with the Bumble Bee? Well, bumble bees are not ergonomically designed to fly; their body weight is far to great for their wing size. They are an engineering miracle and should really be permanently grounded. Yet they don't know this and so they fly. White duck was never meant to have a normal life. But she doesn't know that. She's strong and happy and thriving - and swims as well as any duck in the new pond!