We are on Day 2 of 7 nights in a row that we have to be away from the farm in the evening. Thankfully, with the time change, the chickens put themselves to bed before we have to leave, but the ducks are left on their own for several hours in the dark each night. It’s a worry. I also worry because Bairre misses us terribly. When we come home, we can see his little face in the front window watching for us. Oh, my heart!
Thankfully, the ducks are good at hiding under the deck when it’s dark, so they keep being just fine. And we have peas and then go to bed, One very interesting development is that the new duck, our little boy, is getting closer to being brave enough to take peas from me at night. He’s very, very cautious of me and all humans, but I can see he is relaxing a little bit. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, he will finally get brave and eat some peas. In the meantime, I am taking pictures of him every night, tracking his progress.
I wish I had been taking pictures all along because he started about 15 feet from the pea bowl, and I would have to spend a little time herding him into the duck house at night. Now, you can see he really, really wants some of those peas and is trying to decide if it’s worth taking the chance. I wish I could tell him it totally is.
I also finally found a name that seems to fit him–Ferdinand. He looks like such a fancy little duck that I thought he needed a fancy name. Plus, I loved the movie Babe when I was younger and loved the duck named Ferdinand who was always giving Babe advice.
So this is Ferdinand. I’m thinking about having a little contest on Facebook about how long it might take him to finally eat from the pea bowl. I am guessing a couple of weeks, but I hope it won’t take that long. I will have to think on it later though because, right now, I am worn and have a young man who really needs some mom advice right now.
