Our Small-holding
|
.
|
This page is dedicated to our small-holding and we would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of our animals who reside with us here at Meadowbrook Cottage bed and breakfast.
Our Gorgeous Girls - We have a lovely array of hens, we have some Bluebells, Copper Marans, Silver Blacks as well as a selection of bantams in the field. We do like to hatch our own chicks from our own eggs too as you never quite know exactly what you are going to get which is always quite exciting. We have also, in the past, helped to re-home some of the ex-battery hens who otherwise would face slaughter. |
Female and male Guinea Fowl
One of our Saxony ducks
Three of the Call Ducks
The Aylesbury Ducks
Mr Muscovy with the two geese
The slightly older female Rhea
Here's looking at you kid!
Eye, eye what's up?
No - not a football, this is what a Rhea egg looks like!
|
The Guinea Fowl
We currently have 5 guinea fowl, 4 males and only 1 female who patrol the field keeping an eye out for intruders. They certainly let you know when an intruder enters the field! The Ducks
We have a selection of Saxony, Cayuga, Aylesbury, Muscovy, Khaki Campbell, Indian Runner and Call Ducks. The Call Ducks are funny little things, they are much smaller than all of the other ducks we have here and just a fraction smaller than a Mallard duck. We currently have 9 Call Ducks. They are great fun to watch and have some beautiful colours in their feathers when the sun catches them at different angles. The Indian Runners are rather amusing to watch if you have never seen them before. In fact it is great fun to see them all waddle up the field to get to the pond in a straight line - it is very amusing to watch. As well as "Donald", who you can read about below, we also have one other Mallard Drake who happily resides here with all the other ducks. The Rheas The Rheas came to live with us back in February 2018. We have two females. They came to live with us to help with our Fox prevention scheme. They are great characters, very inquisitive and they do lay extremely large eggs. 
The Rheas
|
 Mr Muscovy
The Geese
We have two female geese who are looked after very well by Mr Muscovy. 
Some of Mr Muscovy's extended family!
One of the ladies pruning herself
Mrs Goose
A very smiley duck indeed!
One crazy but extremely lovable
crazy duck!
|
Mr Muscovy & his Family Mr Muscovy is probably the craziest duck I have ever owned! He really is a character. I can call him and he will waddle up to me from across the field. He likes to have his head rubbed and his tail wags backwards and forwards just like a dog! He is very strange - as he can often be found with the two geese! Muscovy's are a silent duck in the sense that they do not quack but they do make plenty of other funny noises I can assure you! We started off with just Mr Muscovy but we felt sorry for him and so we got him a lady companion and now we have about 21 Muscovy ducks in our field! 
Some of the Bluebell hens enjoying the sunshine in the barn
Two Bantams with their man!
Two hens and a guinea fowl share some food!
|
The lovely thing is - they all live in the field together and they all get along just brilliantly which is just perfect.
And lastly - but not least - we are going to introduce you to Donald!
Donald is actually a wild Mallard Drake. His story is as follows. He was brought to us as a tiny little duckling back in April 2011. He was being viciously attacked by a swan had been rescued by some passers-by who brought the tiny duckling to us to see if we could possibly help him. We took him in and to begin with he was in a cardboard box under a heat lamp in the house until one of our hens hatched 5 chicks of her own. We waited for a couple of days and then he was put under the hen with the chicks at night. She successfully adopted him and to date he is still with us. He is a very special little duck and is a really great character.
Donald is actually a wild Mallard Drake. His story is as follows. He was brought to us as a tiny little duckling back in April 2011. He was being viciously attacked by a swan had been rescued by some passers-by who brought the tiny duckling to us to see if we could possibly help him. We took him in and to begin with he was in a cardboard box under a heat lamp in the house until one of our hens hatched 5 chicks of her own. We waited for a couple of days and then he was put under the hen with the chicks at night. She successfully adopted him and to date he is still with us. He is a very special little duck and is a really great character.
A very young Donald.
|
Still quite young.
|
Getting a little bigger.
|
We still weren't sure whether Donald was a "Donald" or a "Donna" at this early stage!
|
Donald - he's a real ladies man! He is also actually saying "Help! How do I get out of here?"
|
