Le Anatre - The Ducks

These are Ilde's Ducks. When Zio Vittorio passed away he gave the ducks and chickens to Ilde and the Rabbits to Franca.

The ducklings are having fun in the water.






Until the father duck came along and squawked at them and the skidaddled away while he had fun in the water.









CHICKENS 101: Here are the chickens and the 1 rooster. Apparently hens, like women over 45 - 50, get old too and they stop laying eggs. There are only so many eggs they can lay. The rooster, however, is still...well, how should I put it...viable! Even when the hens have no more egg material the rooster still can have his way with them. Every once in awhile you can hear the hens making a loud sqwaking noise and you know the rooster has struck paydirt. A hen can have many eggs in various stages of development inside of her. Up to 50 I am told (by reliable sources...i.e., people who own these chickens). A hen can sit on 10 eggs at once. Some hens like to sit on eggs and some don't. So it can be just like women...some want babies and some don't. Duck eggs were put under a hen and she sat on them (to hatch) until Zio Vittorio shook the duck eggs...can I say they were no longer babies but food... I also found out that you can't have more than 1 rooster or it makes for a wild time in the hen house. And 1 rooster happens to be more than enough to handle multiple hens...hmmmm