So last month we went to the poultry sale at Stirling, and we bought a few things, but among them we bought a hen and 5 pretty newly hatched Cayuga ducklings. We have reared them outside, in a small run on our back lawn/grassed area.
Two weekends ago we moved a house and run into our mini paddock. This is where our adult Cayuga's live, and also where we keep the goat kids in the spring. We moved the ducklings in there, so that we could start to leave open their run door during the day, and get all the Cayuga's used to living together. However, at night they have been getting shut into their small house and run, with the adult's getting shut away seperately. Its worked pretty well, they've all been getting used to each other, and mummy hen is starting too spend more time with the ex battery hens.
On Tuesday evening, Alex shut them in, and looked in the shed to see all 5 ducklings there with their foster mum. On Wednesday morning, my mum went to let them out to find out that there was only 1 duckling and foster mum left.
There are no signs of a predator. No dead ducklings, no scratching around the door, no feathers, blood, gore etc. Equally, there is no way one of the ducklings could get out of the house and run.
So what happened to them?
Beth