Walking with Ducks

Walking with Ducks

There are lots of stories, articles, and movies about people walking with lions, tigers, elephants and many other kinds of animals. But have you ever tried walking with ducks?

Our ducks are fed very well. They (43) ducks eat 2 quarts of organic poultry food every morning. They spend the day going through the pastures eating grass, chasing flies, picking through the manure pile, sneaking up on lizards (not very easy to do if you are a duck) and generally keeping their crops as full as possible.

But things change drastically at 5:00 PM every day. I did not realize that ducks are better at telling time than I am.  So at 5PM sharp, they line up outside the barn door and turn up the volume!  We have some great quackers. Phyllis and Diller, the top-knotted Pekins (Aflacks with Phyllis Dillers hats), the Khaki's and the Swedish Blues all can sound off like they were afraid of being unable to talk to their
 neighbor at a rock concert.

So I take my 2 quarts of poultry food that they are fed in the evening and take the brave walk to the feeders.
I can only take little tiny steps with my size 11 feet as I am afraid of stepping on their duck feet. I am a bag of chum in a sea of hungry sharks and am poked and prodded to hurry along by all the 43 starving ducks.
When I bend down to pick up a feeder, I am beset by ducks pulling at my shirt and my hair.  Anything to hurry up the feeding process.

Ahhhhh, blessed silence.  But wait, there is noise.  But it is the contented babble of duckies eating as fast as they can before bedtime.

From Land's End