Friday 13 June 2014

The Floating Duck Lodge

It was a bit of a surprise to all of us here at Flyte so Fancy HQ this Spring, to not only find our Bluebell Orpington sat tight on a clutch of duck eggs, a Cherry White snuggled down on her own nest of eggs in the corner of a hen house, a Cayuga protectively guarding her eggs in the Puddleduck Duck House by the pond and most interestingly a hen, rather ambitiously, sat on goose eggs. With the possibility of a whole gang of ducklings arriving at any moment, the workshop got cracking on a new floating duck house immediately. While myself, Rob the gardener and Operations Manager Rich headed down the to the Flyte so Fancy chicken field to pull the old floating island and duck houses in from the middle of the pond.

Cute little Duckling
One of Our New Arrivals
Having got the old duck float out of the pond (my role as overseer and giver of "helpful" advise being met with derision and unkind words from the other two) we waited for the arrival of the new duck house, which arrived promptly and in splendid form. The result of the workshops labours, The Floating Duck Lodge.

The timber float is packed with polystyrene so that it floats at just the right level for your ducks, although for some of the smaller breeds there is a helpful step. The hexagonal house is made from our high quality Scandinavian Redwood timber and will house six pairs of nesting ducks. With area on the float for whiling the day away, this really is a penthouse by the pool.

Duck and Goose Housing
The Floating Duck Lodge
Now, the boss Phill has always contended that a Flyte so Fancy float is so buoyant, that it can take the weight of two men and not sink. Once we had the new hexagonal float in the pond it wasn't long for the challenge to be accepted. Emptying his pockets of keys and with a little help, Operations Manager (and ex-professional rugby player) Rich was soon floating away happily on top of the pond. Quitting while we were ahead, and fearing that double black-belt chicken whisper Rob might be tempting fate, the duck housing was put into position on the float and the floating duck lodge was majestically pulled out into the middle of the pond. Where it now bobs away waiting for the ducklings, hopefully a few goslings too, to take their first swim.


It'll be a little while yet till our ducklings take to the pond. As they were mostly raised by surrogate mother hens, we will have to wait for them to start preening their essential oils for floating through their own feathers before we can let them out onto the water. But i shall be sure to bring you many pictures of the ducklings first length of the pond.


Thanks for Reading
James

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