Larissa, a friend of ours, whose tribe of guineapigs like our hay, sent one of those emails. It was a link to an advert, asking for a home for two Khaki Campbell ducks – Doris and Lilly. I made the mistake of sending the email on to Suz, who decided we could give them a home. I happened to be in the area on the Sunday, so in I popped with Jay, to meet them.

Their mum, Claire, introduced us to two of the most adorable ducks I’ve seen – so tame, and happy to be picked up, stroked, and plopped back down again – their beaks a perpetual smile! We were plied with tea and home-made cakes (which we forgot to pick up from the kitchen!!) and after a farewell to the ducks from their family, we brought them back to Merrybower.

We’re not entirely sure where their permanent  home will be – apparently they live quite happily with chickens, but I know the mess they can make of drinking water, so we’ll have a think, but we’ll find a place for them to call their own 🙂

If you look really carefully at the photograph you can see three Call Duck boys in the background, their heads kept popping up at the sight of their pretty new neighbours – I see trouble ahead!

Apparently Khaki Campbell ducks can lay around 300 eggs a year, although I imagine this would be down to the particular strain. Having said that, we were given two presents this morning in the shape of eggs, so we must have been accepted!