I'd spent most of the day mending the rabbit-eaten electric fence - it won't be electrified any more as I had to cut huge sections out which were 'shredded', and wire the sound netting together. I decided on just one separating fence in the end, it'll be difficult enough to move it when the grass mowing season has started. My main concern was trying to stop the gang-raping of the girls - even if Captain and his 4 and Ben and his 4 should come across each other in the larger section of the garden there should not be too much trouble with 2 boys and 8 girls. I feel sorry for the 5 "leftover" boys, but they were getting very rough and too often, I didn't want the ducks to get injured.
Once the fence was in place and John had put in the new ramp he'd made we were ready to try and separate 5 boys from Ben and the 4 girls. First we drove all 10 into the enclosure by the little pond, and managed to drive 3 of the girls into the shed - unfortunately Big H managed to get in with them. We shut the door and left them for later, and concentrated on getting Praline and Ben away from the other boys. Got Praline [used to be Beyoncé] and put her into her new hut, the one that John had made years ago. Ben scarpered with Jay-Z and Tuts and hid in the narrowest gap between a fence panel and the garage wall, it took us ages to get them out again. And so it went on, the 3 ducks we thought we'd secured in the shed got away again, but little by little we managed to drive every one into a tight spot and put them this or that side of the gate to the enclosure.
The panic we'd created with these activities soon died down, all settled down, ate and drank and preened themselves - even the 5 boys, although they spent most of the time complaining loudly outside the gate to the enclosure and the girls. There was more trouble at bed time, not with Captain's group or the 5 drakes, they all went in easily. Ben and 4 at their new location were a different matter, we tried and tried to get them into their new hut, and failed and failed until we used the plastic fencing so they couldn't help but go up the ramp.
It'll be interesting tomorrow!
This was a surprise, the first time John found 3 eggs in the bottom hut, and one of them was almost black!
Above and below, last photos of the 10 youngsters sleeping together [until the end of August, I presume]. The forsythia ball on the left looks as if it's about to burst into a froth of yellow.
It took 3 of the girls a while to come out of the hut we'd shut them in while driving the boys out. GertieII at the back of the hut had escaped my arms when I was trying to put her in, and Ben is standing guard.
The boys were in a panic after all our chasing and tried to get through to the Post Office garden again.
"Speeeedy" Big H - the 5 outcast drakes spent a lot of time running to and fro, trying to find a way to get to the girls - so far the fence has held!
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