Part three:
It’s the day we are leaving for Europe, our stomach’s tight with nerves, our sadness not seeing our farmily for 3 weeks jerked our heart strings. One last walk to the barn to say “ later farmily” and there they were. The cutest, tiniest, softest looking little bunch of ducklings with a very proud momma. She pulled it off. Exhibiting her new little brood like they were on the red carpet. Our hearts burst. We jumped for joy with excitement about our new little additions, all five were perfect, just perfect. Or so we thought. Ducks grow super fast and we had no idea that this brood was different until we got home 3 weeks later.
Europe was amazing and our beloved family has grown with all our new friends, old friends and good Samaritans who helped us along the way. We loved Europe but we were so ready to be home.
The time of year was august so the nights were long and very warm. Our first day back landed us around dinner time. It was so much fun to see the gardens, animals and pets so well taken care of. I teared up with emotion and felt such love. On our way back past the barn, there they were, only 3 ducklings left now but they look ummm , so different. Not just their sheer size, which is almost full grown, but their markings. What the……. Who? ……. How is it they look like a Mallard head walking around on a Muscovy? How could this happen?
The two drakes and one female were all solid dark brown with a ring around their neck Like a Mallard. That Sharon sure had her secrets, and this one had us scratching our heads in disbelief.
We learned that this is a hybrid breed called Mullard. Wild Mallard drakes breed with Muscovy females and BAM. Mullards. Huh who knew, not us. Thank you google.
We called them Hooey Dooey and Looey. Looey being the female. Courtenay had discovered that Looey could catch worms. Courtenay would through big ones and little ones towards Looey and she would catch them every time. So many hours of fun turning over rocks or pieces of wood to find bugs and slugs that the ducks would gobble up. The ducks soon learned to follow us around and we would, inevitably, stop and take a break to schmooze with them and turn over random things you find on a farm. They wag their tails and learn their names, and always motion forward when we speak to them. Poppa duck, Pekin, and Peggy were all so friendly we couldn’t believe how lucky we were.
So we started with a drake named Dice which turned into two when Sharon came along. After giving back her first offspring and Dice being taken from us we were down to one duck until Poppa duck, Peggy and Pekin came along. That makes it four ducks, then Sharons’ offspring makes it seven ducks. Wow! Or was it…………
Return next week in the continued adventures in
The Chronicles of Sharon
