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Panacea Newsletter 10

The new arrivals in mid May caused quite a stir.Having incubated four eggs in the manual incubator three of them hatched out.

I have done this for many years and have never before experienced what happened next. After a week one duckling suddenly couldn't walk or hold his/her head up.It improved and seemed fine, then another one had the same condition and an hour later had died. This was followed by the first little one the next morning and finally after two days I found the third one dead in the brooder. They had been completely healthy,strong ducklings and their demise is a mystery. After much heart searching we are now embarked upon a second incubation all these eggs are courtesy of Blanche and Daisybelle. We must remain positive for the next raising. Was it the food boys? We are just not sure as some chick crumbs can be toxic to ducklings.

This is a short video clip of one hatching. Double click to run video. All the boys had lovely cuddles with the ducklings and Barkis was an excellent midwife.Moments to remember for all of us but now we must concentrate on nurturing the second setting.

Apart from this we had the river in flood and the boys were amazed at the difference in water level. Usually we step down to Panacea but in the height of the flooding we stepped up about half a metre. We had an interesting time too trying to work out the maths equation for calculating the speed of the river. After dropping a stick at the bow and timing it to the stern we knew how long it took to travel 18metres. Multiplying distance by time and then dividing we found that the speed was about 4 mph. not a lot really!

Activity has been great in the workshop.Lewis finished his solitaire,Josh took home his pickup truck and intruder alarm and Paddy made a pen stand, the pen was suspended in mid-air. So an eventful half term was had by all and now we are headed for the last part of the academic year.No doubt too it will be a farewell to some.I have already said it to Hannah! Good luck ,Hannah ,with your English GCSE, go for it girl! x

Dated: 2012-06-07 and Updated: 2024-05-26