Ducks are happy in Ballyyahoo and none are happier than the ducks that live in the garden of Cori-the hen woman.
Cori feeds her ducks on barley, oats and other grains.
She also has a small pond as ducks need plenty of water to swim and preen.
These ducks are free range. This means they are free to forage and ramble around Cori’s garden.
Other ducks are not so lucky. Many of them are kept in sheds with no room to roam about.
DID YOU KNOW THAT DUCKS CAN GARDEN?
Cori’s ducks also help her in the garden by foraging around for snails, slugs and other insects which would otherwise eat all her cabbage and kale.
Cori loves her cabbage and kale and grows it every year.
The duck and drake like to go around together, but they keep within clucking range of the flock of hens.
In fact, Cori’s hens and ducks all get on very well together with no duck/hen fights or hissing.
The duck and drake in the above photograph are the proud parents of these little ducklings.
These ducklings are very cosy and warm tucked in beside their mother.
But, you might be surprised to know that Ducks don’t always seem to make the best of parents.
Especially when the ducklings start growing.
Sometimes the father, the drake, pushes and prods the little ducklings with his beak when they get in his way.
The mother sometimes walks around the garden, forgetting to bring the ducklings with her.
As you can see in the photographs below these little ducklings love to eat.
When this happens the little ducklings have to chase after their mother and hope she remembers them.
Sometimes ducklings die in the wild, as their mothers tend to drag them around or even forget all about them.
Luckily for these ducklings, Cori is always around to make sure they are safe.
I hope you enjoyed these nature stories from Ballyyahoo. All the stories and photographs you find on this site are free because the aim of Ballyyahoo is to encourage children to love nature.
If you and your children enjoy the site and want to support Ballyyahoo, the best way to do that is to buy one of the Ballyyahoo books.
Maggie Many Cats and Other Stories is a complete collection of Ballyyahoo stories.
Each story contains clickable links to educational resources on this site so your child can discover the joys of nature as they read.
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Lovely story and pictures, Grace! ❤
Thanks Ali – great to hear from you – ducks are so great. We could watch them toddling around for hours 🙂
I love ducks! I wanted to build a pond and have some in my garden but decided against it in the end cos of foxes.
Yes indeed foxes and ducks are not a good match.