Ironing Ducks!

If you have read any of my other pieces you will have gathered that I like animals and like to look after them properly. Whenever I start a new venture I find appropriate reading material: Sheep breeding for Idiots,Pig rearing by Numbers and many other similar works of reference grace my library. When we decided to buy some hens and ducks then I had to find a book with all the relevant information for the successful keeping of our feathered friends. Poultry Keeping for Peasants seemed to be the answer.

We have a small number of free range layers who provide us with all our eggs and we usually have a few to sell to friends. These hens are very simple to care for,they are out in the fields during the day then come into their henhouse at night to avoid the foxes and martins. We also keep a few turkeys for Christmas for ourselves and a few friends. These are also free range and are the best tasting birds you could ever imagine.

Flushed with the success of the hens and turkeys we decided to get some ducklings. Any small animals are gorgeous but ducklings are particulaly endearing. However as they get older they start to get very messy and very smelly. This is because of their need for water and they are like naughty children making as much mess as possible. Everything within several meters of their small pond turned into a mudbath. So it was with some relief that the time came for them to go to the great pond in the sky. As we are farmers this is a part of life for us.

It is my husbands job to dispatch the birds as quickly and painlessly as possible and he is very proficient, even though it is his least favorite task. As in all our dealings we consult the book first but in the case of ducks it was not very helpful. My husband had to devise his own method which differed from that for the hens and turkeys perhaps because of the length of their necks. However the deed was finally done and we came to the boring task of plucking, a job we share.

We settled down with one duck each and had soon removed the feathers or so we thought. Ducks being water birds also have a layer of fine down to keep them warm and dry. Having never plucked ducks before we did not know how best to remove the downy feathers. So back to Poultry Keeping for Peasants. I read with some disbelief the book's recommendation for dealing with the down.

It was at this point in the proceedings that I was glad we have no near neighbours. I followed the instructions to the letter.

Heat your iron to moderately warm,lay the duck on a flat surface,cover with a clean teatowel and iron it. Can you imagine the scene there I was dashing away with the smoothing iron on a duck,and even worse it didn't work. I had a duck with perfect creases but still covered in down.

I always intended writing to the author of that book to find out whether he had ever tried ironing a duck,but I suppose I didn't want to admit that I had actually tried it myself. THe moral of this tale is that you can't believe everything you read!

We have not kept ducks since.