Bless the new bantams.  Only here less than a day and a further three eggs this evening. Each hen has laid an egg and the chick has cowered under the hen house for most of the day.

One of the sitting ducks has a nightly ritual.  She comes out of the duck house at 6 pm, performs her ablutions in the basin of water and then, after 15 or 20 minutes, returns to the house to sit on the eggs.  We think she has another week or so before the eggs hatch and the duck sitting under the duck house is probably due at about the same time.  We will need to be on hand to put the ducklings in a safe place as the crows still search for eggs and babies to eat.