Welcome Alistair!

My Ladies have been loving the spring thaw, the mud puddles, and endless outings out in the back pasture.

Since Peaches showed me she is my one broody duck, I promised her a drake at some point, and the universe must have been listening.

I was at the feed store the other day and was offered a Swedish Blue drake, just like that.

His hen was killed by a fox, and he was living with chickens that didn’t really care for him and whom he liked to harass. SO yes, yes I would love him.

I picked him up on Monday morning, brought him home, and he ran right over to the Ladies and tried running them down and harassing them. And communally you could almost hear “oh no you didn’t?!” The Ladies pinned their heads straight out and went right after him and did a communal smack down.

This wasn’t the Don Juan love fest I was hoping for.

When I went to put them to bed last night, the Ladies were all nested down at Fort Duckworth, and my new drake was standing in the middle of the pasture, mah mah mah, and looking kind of lost. I gently escorted him into his area, the Ladies uttered some gang slang, and he politely laid at the door.

This morning when I went out to feed and water everyone I was hoping my little matriarchal society was gentle on him over the night.

Alistair and Bernice, she is the ‘largest’ female in my flock

Whatever was said, and whatever he decided would be a good thing to learn, boy did he!

They all walked out calmly to eat, drink and get some early morning sunshine.

We have named this big beautiful fellow, Alistair. He is about double the size of the ladies, not as fast or as keen as them, but he seems to be settling in rather quickly and will learn the ‘ways of the Ladies’.