Once I’ve finished making sheep for the afternoon, the ducks/hens have their afternoon meal – hopefully the last one before bed.

After all that stabbing, I give myself the luxury of sitting down on the container step to watch everyone eat.  I could watch them forever. It is so peaceful. The flock have a social strata set-up that is fairly rigid and I make sure everyone who wants to eat, gets to eat.  I do not tolerate bullying and will put out lots of food buckets so everyone can eat without worry.

The hens are pretty good at sharing with the ducks.  I tend to feed them from used TurmerAid buckets, which are perfect, so that little is wasted – until someone tips it up or the wind catches it. They now all recognise the bright orange buckets as something to look inside for food and water.

The two new ducklings are almost adult in size but still live with their mother.

Mother remains a tough old dragon-duck but she’s done a good job of bringing them up.  They still hate being hugged.

The “ducklings” are currently at the stage of running around with their wings out hoping for lift-off.  It is very funny especially as nothing happens and they look surprised at their lack of not being airborne.

I also leave out a bit of food for my resident fan-club of sparrows to clear up.

And then I take Pepper in for her tea, which is she is currently very enthusiastic about.