Crispy Duck Dinner

Nothing is too much when it comes to keeping the animals happy! Take for instance our (poultry) House Guest. Jemima's contribution to the Morris household is her appetite for slugs and snails. Their garden is meticulously scoured daily - net result, lovely plants and well-fed Jemima.

Since she's a little more confined here I thought maybe Jemima was missing this particular delicacy. It's been raining this week so we've more than enough snails in the rest of the garden. We've therefore been foraging around in order to provide Jemima with some tasty treats. The dish shown here was last night's dinner which you can see her tucking into just before going to bed!

She really is a singular duck. Her quacking is almost endless. She comes to call ( a real Call Duck then!); demands to be stroked; strides around the place as if she owns it; eats out of our hands; loves to be picked up and cuddled and is probably the most inquisitive duck ever. She is always 'there' when anything is going on.

Which brings us to the tale of her beak. It's her distinguishing feature. Not just because it's big and yellow. Paul was doing some digging in the garden one day - serious stuff using a sledgehammer to break up the ground. As ever, Jemima was waddling under his feet, trying to get all the juicy worms and bugs he was disturbing. All of a sudden she must have spied one exactly where he was digging. Down went her beak. At the precise moment his sledgehammer hit the ground. Well. It didn't actually hit the ground. It hit her beak!

Pooooor Jemima.

Pooooor Paul; he was mortified. Nothing for it but to take Jemima to the vet.

Her beak was tended to and luckily it's mended and she's none the worse for it.

None the wiser either I shouldn't think from the way her beak is still just there whenever anything is going on..................

We shall miss her when she goes home.................

A pig he would a-wooing go....

A few months ago one of Ginger's first litter offspring - Little Polly Piglet - went to the very charming Mr James Barclay of this county. Although she was a mere stripling, the question of a suitable husband for her did arise. The only answer then was her illustrious sire. Whilst there is no problem in line-breeding to such a handsome and well bred boar, the age (hence, size) difference gave cause for concern. Potentially it meant that Polly would need to wait till she was in her second year before she could be mated. No problem there. But not ideal for a healthy young gilt.

Not ideal for an eminent would-be pig breeder either.

A fortuitious solution presented itself in the shape of the very handsome pure-bred Blonde boar (in the centre of the picture) who - having been born on Christmas Day - is just one month younger than Polly. He is one of the Four who came over from 'the other side of the country', his sister being Lily (who went to The Show) who will remain with the RectoryReserve herd.

So, off he went this afternoon in the very fine limousine you see here. Not that he really wanted to go on his own. The other two pigs, therefore, loaded themselves into the limo with him, saw that he was settled and then quietly returned to their stall. Hearing of the beautiful Miss Polly Piglet who awaited him at the end of his journey seemed to cheer him no end - he hardly looked back. He will be very happy in his new home. And their eventual offspring will carry a very healthy mix of genes.

Meanwhile, Ginger's latest brood were introduced to the public last Sunday. Unfortunately, after a blisteringly warm and sunny few weeks, the weather broke the day before. At the allotted time of the 'piglet viewing' Ginger made her apologies but insisted the little ones could not leave their cosy ark for the damp and windy wood outside. I think a few lucky visitors managed to catch a glimpse of a piglet or two in the dark recesses..... they were happy enough with that (they politely said!). Mind you, the rest of the herd were more than happy to lap up the attention so readily available. There was just one nasty moment when Mangel, trying to get a little closer to one of the lady guests' legs, stuck his nose through the fence and got more than he bargained for. He's not yet used to his (rapidly) growing tusks. Taking his head back through the fence, he was impaled. He was Not Amused.

The screaming and squealing could probably have been heard in the next county. Slightly scary! As a way of getting everyone's attention it was extremely effective!

Luckily, he managed to extricate himself just before the arrival of the Boss with the wire-cutters. It hasn't happened again - yet.

Funnily enough, when all the guests had gone home - and all was quiet - the piglets were allowed to scamper hither and thither for as long as they wished!!! (Perhaps Ginger thinks that growing up in the public eye is not a desirable fate for her children...... on the other hand, maybe she doesn't want to share the limelight????).

At exactly two weeks old today they are adorable, precocious and imbued with that star quality that one would expect from such illustrious parentage.

And just like their predecessors they are already trying to steal the food from Mum's bowl so have moved on to piglet meal a good week earlier than normally recommended! Clearly they already know a thing or two!

Jemima - feeling quite comfy thank you!

Jemima has settled in very nicely. We know she's around.

She is quite loud!

Not worried about telling the world exactly what she thinks (that she owns it...!)

Apart from not having seen a pond before she came here, she'd never met another duck nor chicken.... But is she bothered by them? Not a bit. Two days on and she owns the pond; hardly ever out of it. Not a single chicken or duck has confronted her - leastways not in our presence. She doesn't even mind them sharing her food and quite happily eats theirs too...

Late Saturday evening I went out to shut everyone up for the night and found Jemima, White Duck, the two Drakes and a female on the pond having a real old quack-fest; well it WAS Eurovision night - perhaps they were having their own contest (they'd have stood a good chance of winning had they been in Belgrade!) Never heard so much orchestrated quacking.....

On my instruction - "BoBos quackies" - Jemima strode off to the Poultry Palace still quacking loudly. So I collected her and placed her firmly in her own private sleeping quarters. She was not amused. She made it quite plain.

How?

Squitted down my jacket! Hmmmmph.

Once she was firmly shut away the remaining four songsters promptly waddled off to their sleeping quarters - well, once the party girl had gone what else was there to do.....?

Just another interesting little aside about Jemima. You might just notice a bit of a scar on her beak? See if you can see it..... we'll tell you the tale of how it got there another day....

Jemima comes to stay!

Our first ever non-human holiday guest came to stay today for a week whilst her 'family' go camping in the Lake District.

Jemima, like our own White Duck, is an Aylesbury x Pekin escapee from Messrs Cherry Valley Ducks. Hers is an interesting story. One day, when she was still very, very young she was seen waddling around the village. Those who saw her remarked, in hindsight, that it was a 'bit odd' but at the time - as is the way in these parts - she was just 'remarked' and let go on her way. Later in the day she found her way into the Morris's garden; she came across Carrie doing some weeding and waddled up to her, quacking "Are you my new mummy". And she's been waddling around the garden behind Carrie and Paul and their son Jack ever since..... quacking increasingly loudly as she grew into the fine young duck you see here. She has the whole garden to roam in throughout the day and has proved an indispensable ally in the battle against slugs and snails.....

Mind you - she was very nearly ab-duck-ted one day: what a good job Carrie was home. Two men suddenly appeared in the garden and made to 'snatch' Jemima (they claimed they thought she had only just escaped from the Big Sheds) but they didn't reckon on Carrie dashing out of the kitchen screaming "What are you doing with our duck??!!" (Neighbours were heard to say later that they thought some catastrophe had occurred). Made aware of their error they apologised profusely, beating a hasty retreat -their ears ringing with the curses that would befall them if ever they were seen anywhere near Maison Morris! Jemima's future was secured.

So... she arrived this morning complete with her own (rather up-market) sleeping quarters, plus her knapsack containing food, bedding, water and food bowls and various housekeeping appliances. Plus, of course, Jack and Carrie.

Jemima's never seen a pond but it was not long before her tentative testing from the bank persuaded her that maybe it would be a very good place to spend some time....... and she's been in and out all day!

And she's been in and out of the Poultry Palace, inspected the pen from back to front and side to side and - bearing in mind she has never met any other poultry in her relatively short life so far, she has been remarkably sanguine about the whole event! Apart from some very loud quacks....

It's a duck's life --- as they say! Only hope I don't have to wade out into the pond in a week's time to retrieve her when Jack returns to collect her!

Almost forgot to mention the ducklings...

In all the excitement of the piglets, the ducks went about their business almost unnoticed. To be honest, I had lost count of which duck had been sitting on which nest for how long.
So when I shut the poultry up last Sunday evening and heard some familiar cheeping sounds I thought we might be in luck the next morning..... Sure enough, when I went out there was mother duck with her little brood of 7 (again!) sitting outside in the run for all to see.

Ducklings are so small they can walk straight through conventional chicken netting. Hence, we'd reinforced most of the large pen last Friday with some very small half inch square netting. But of course the ducklings appeared in the pen which was not yet reinforced. So first job Monday morning was to fix that. Engrossed in this task and almost finished, I looked up and noticed two ducklings had apparently escaped through a 'secure' section of fence into the main pen. Stopping in my work, I walked round, scooped them up and replaced them with their mum.

But she wasn't. Within seconds I had two very indignant ducks quacking at the fence for all they were worth - and two tinies trying desperately to squeeze through the unsqueezethroughable fencing.....! Quel Domage. Nothing for it but to scoop up the indignant ducks and put them in the pen with the other mum and all the little ones.

Three mums and 9 ducklings in total.

Checking the hen house I discovered the nest that the two ducks had been sitting on for 4 weeks had no other eggs left in it. Most unusual.

So two ducks and two eggs.

At least, I thought, they're all safe in the reinforced pen.

When I shut everyone up last night Daffodil and her three chicks plus the three ducks and their offspring were all in the little boudoir. I thought.

This morning when I opened everyone up what did I see? Two little ducklings on their own in the pen outside the boudoir. Then another three ducklings in the main pen - and how they got there goodness knows. And what a noise the confined mums were making.

What a sight when they were all reunited.

But doing a head count I realised we were 2 ducklings short. OH DEAR......

Now the three mums are even more protective and I note tonight, having checked thoroughly, that all are safely tucked up in the boudoir.... At least I think so....

Gunner to Gundog... the continuing tale

Yet another fortnight gone by. And off we go for another lesson in 'How to be The BEST Gundog'. We meet Rory down at the farm where he's gone with several dogs for their training session. As we arrive he's just practising some water retrieves with a buzzy little black/grey cocker spaniel. I was impressed by the little chap's enthusiasm but, lesson finished, talking to Rory he explained that the dog was a bad example - enthusiastic, keen, fast and buzzy but only if he was doing what he wanted to do and if he couldn't do that he could be sly and stubborn.... "Not a good example".

So, talking of good examples, I signal Gunner to get out of the car and we start his session. It takes very few minutes before Rory exclaims: "This is a different dog!" We continue with various hunt, retrieve and memory tasks. Again Rory exclaims: "You said when I came over that you had three spaniels but I only met two. This must be the one you were hiding!"

The session continued in the same vein. "I can't believe it's the same dog" said Rory, yet again. "He's keen, enthusiastic and happy and doing everything you ask. I think we've turned the corner with him. Now we can move forward!".

I'm ecstatic. My dog's going to be a gundog>>>>>!!!! For once, Rory is smiling. The only mistakes we made all session were handler errors. For once, it's I who has to polish up on the homework. Gunner just has to continue onwards and upwards.... more water experience to build up his confidence and continue stretching his memory..... Easy peasy stuff.

Will this continue????

Well -- Gunner's been having a word with Mangel about it..... and Mangel thinks things can only get better.... Optimistic pig then?

Little Lily pig went to the Show

.. But Precious and Buster said "Definitely NO!".

So that was that then, wasn't it?

If a pig don't want to go, a pig don't want to go. And after trying for 30minutes to persuade them into the limousine - to no avail - we just took Lily. And what a great day she had. Centre of Attention - not a bad thing for any little miss piggy - quite wore her out. People calling her 'Woolly pig', 'Hairy pig', 'sheep-like pig' and many others just saying "Ohhhhh a curly coat - haven't seen one of them in years!" She proved a great ambassador for the cause and provoked a great deal of interest. She had 4, of a litter of 13, 10 week old Berkshire piglets alongside for company - not that she paid them a great deal of attention, but they were very popular with the visitors. The Lincoln Reds and Shire Horses didn't make her stir more than a whisker either and as for the Lancaster (0ne of only two in the world still flying) and the Spitfire - well, they literally went over the top of her head!

When we got back home and she told Precious and Buster what they'd missed they were totally unimpressed - well, they would be wouldn't they.... particularly as they'd missed breakfast through their stubborn behaviour.....

Lily left them to their tea and went and collapsed in a heap outside the ark, bent on recovering from her extremely arduous day...........

Piggy would a-wandering go

So, there we were on Wednesday afternoon - totally oblivious to Ginger's imminent delivery - delivering two of Precious's brothers to their new home. Elshom Hall, located in the north of Lincolnshire near Scunthorpe, is one of England's stately country piles which is 'open to the Public' for the summer months. Amongst its many attractions are the landscaped parkland, beautiful gardens (including a restored and artistically laid out walled one), well stocked lakes and numerous natural sculptures. Also there are animals to entertain, mostly, the children - guinea pigs, lion-headed rabbits, peacocks, guinea fowl, sheep... to name but a few. And now they also have two curly coated pigs.....

There was a fine welcoming party when we arrived - little piggies were just a tiny bit overwhelmed ; didn't want to leave the comfort of their limousine (which it had taken us just a bit of time (!) to convince them was worth stepping into in the first place). However, their new 'Boss' - Gervase - proved more than capable of persuading them to take the long trip down the ramp into their new surroundings --- which were then subjected to much scrutiny... but seemed to pass muster! We left them rootling around whilst being much admired by their new family..... They will love the adoration of the visiting public and the public will, we are sure, love them......

She's a real pig but she's our mum!

24 hours later and all the (definitely 7) little ones are alive and well. What a treasure Mum is. The little ones suckle almost continuously - with 20 minutes breaks inbetween. Ginger just rumbles the whole time

- almost contentedly.

Mangel, meanwhile, rather in the manner of elephants, rumbles away in unison in his pen - roughly three metres away from her. If that's not companionable........

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!******BIG KISS FOR MUM!!***

Congratulations! Ginger delivers...... 7 ... We Think!

Every day for the past 3 weeks we've been saying

"tomorrow"... and every tomorrow has come and gone. Today she was 'nesting' --- carrying mouths full of straw to the big ark. Consulting the 'Pig Book' we read that this usually happens 2-3 days before the piglets are due. "AHA" we say "She's bound to have them at the weekend when we're off to The Show"...............

What do we know?

Go out for the afternoon delivering two of her previous off-spring to their new home (more of which later). Ginger's "sleeping" when we return home in the late afternoon.

Go out at usual time to feed dinner..................... The Boss returns, pregnant with news! "How can you sit there calmly supping tea when we have PIGLETS outside!!!!!"

At first I think he's kidding..... but he doesn't joke about serious matters........ Hotfoot off to the ark and there she is, proud - but worn out - mum surrounded by numerous (7? 8? 9?) squiggling, shaking, squeaking tiny, tiny piglets..........................

What a Clever Girl..... she is hot, tired and exhausted... and maybe not yet finished.

We give her fresh water. She comes out for a drink. Returns to her piglets..... fraught few minutes whilst she settles - trying to avoid 'on top' of them. We decide we're superfluous for the moment and, nervously, retreat to leave her to it. We'll check in an hour or so...... Wishing her well we try to occupy our time till we go out to check her at dusk.....

What? You? Here too?

It was lesson time again today. With Rory coming over to our territory to see how the would-be-bestest-Gundog behaves on his own ground.

Gunner's always keen and excited about his lessons. He knows the signs. Other dogs told to 'stay indoors' but 'Gunner out'. And he sits quivering in the porch while I don the gear and collect the (now quite heavy) dummy rucksack. And then he's all agog with that "What are we going to do now?" questioning bounce about him.

Likewise today.

Except when we got out the door and went up to the car parked outside with Rory standing next to it, he did a double-take. First he went up sniffing and wagging quite confidently... then he literally stood back, looked up and his little face clearly said "What? You... here....?"

But then he seemed to shrug it off and we went down the field to run through his paces. We ran through the library of retrieves: memory, hidden, left & right, back, drop-come here-fetch back..... everything except somersault-and-return really. The w-b-b-G didn't falter once. Eager, attentive and tail wagging merrily, he did it all. And it was a very hot day so he had every excuse to play the lazy card if he'd wanted to.

We went 'hunting' and he was keen, attentive to the whistle when it was needed and happy in his work. We tried a 'retrieve' in the midst of his hunting. It's fair to say he wasn't quite so keen on the idea; went towards it then kind of gave up and started to come back in; so I instructed him to 'sit' then 'Fetch back' and back he duly went, collected the dummy quite happily and brought it back to me.

"That's when the homework really begins to pay off" said Rory. "Two weeks ago he didn't know that command and you'd have been stuck. But he's learned his lesson and today he could use it in a practical way."

Well.... that's better than a red rosette I'd say!

Returning home we ended the session with a totally new skill.......... retrieving from water. The pond level is quite high still after all the rain we had last month but the sunshine has brought out all the algae. So it's nice and cool and green! Gunner has never been in it. He's been happy enough running through ditches and quite deep bog.... but never been in a real pond. So we sat him at the edge, threw the dummy a couple of metres in and sent him off to 'fetch'. And off he went ---- very, very gingerly; slow step by slow step, one paw at a time until he reached the dummy: which he then picked up - ugh, nasty, wet and green covered thing - equally gingerly and, almost distastfully, dragged back to shore! Full marks. Big Praise. Another red roset

te moment. Exercise repeated and carried out just a teensy bit less gingerly! "You really want me to bring you this nasty, smelly, soggy thing?" What a good dog.

Trainer much impressed. Owner thrilled and relieved. Dog..... tired!

Homework is to increase the difficulty of the retrieves by doing less and less at home and more and more in rough ground. And if the weather holds, we take the w-b-b-G to a nice clean lake to practice swimming for his next lesson. He'll like that! Of course he will.......

News - yet No News!

It's a Bank Holiday and the phone rings very early in the morning ...visitors wish to come to see the Curly Coats.... May they? Of course they may. He writes 'pieces' for the local papers and journals; she is passionate about animals; both are passionate about pigs: being from Lincolnshire they are enamoured of the Curly Coat story. They come, they admire and they enthuse. The Curlies are more than happy to comply with the desire to be stroked, petted and patted. They almost fall over themselves. It's all great fun. Our visitors go away promising to write 'pieces' and musing over whether or not they can accomodate a curly coat of their own.....

Last week it was a prominent local artist who turned up 'on spec.' to see the curly coats. This particular gentleman has, all his life, harboured an ambition to paint the 'Lincolnsire Trio' (Red cattle, Longwool sheep and Curly Coat pig) but never thought he would be able to fulfil it..... He was totally ecstatic about the pigs. His 80 year old companion was more interested in getting hold of some serious fat bacon. We told him where to find it. He rang first thing the following morning to check there would still be some by the time he could get someone to drive him (having recently had a hip op.he was unable to ferry himself....) ...... and reserved his order. The butcher's never had that happen before.....

Meanwhile, still no news on Ginger: she was wallowing today, it being seriously warm.

Mangel continues to watch on.... he too is feeling the change in the weather, but it does not put him off his food.

News from the Poultry Palace is that we have six ducks seriously sitting on nests..... due to hatch in a fortnight or so... They've hidden themselves in various 'safe' places in and out of the Poultry Palace. Twice a day they rush off their nests amidst a furore of quacking and flapping of wings - dashing off to wash and eat and drink and within 10 minutes or so are back on their eggs again. During this time the drakes rush up and down in panic, doubtless worried that the females will stay away from the nests too long!

Meanwhile, Daffodil's chicks are becoming bolder and bigger every day.... Conchita has returned to Merlin and is much happier - she stubbornly refused to settle in the Poultry Palace and spent every night alone in her solitary boudouir. No contest then, I decided. Back she goes. He fussed and pranced around her all day. So -He's happy too. Also yesterday we heard the cuckoo for the first time this year..... very late; usually we reckon to hear him around the 21st April.... But April was too wet and cold....yet only today we read in the paper that the forecast is for the warmest summer for many a year --- the ducklings will certainly hatch; Ginger will definitely give birth - when she's ready.... The weather? Well, who knows...... Never a dull moment in the country!....