Sitting Ducks (and chickens)

What a fun and busy time we are having.  A couple of weeks ago, we got four new chickens.  Here's a photo of two of them wondering where on earth they have come to and what they are doing being transported in a pet carrier.   Come on - time to get out now!

Well of course the chickens aren't a problem as they can just go in the existing hen house with its own run and tree for them to jump into.  But then we were asked if we would take a couple of ducklings.  Help!  We know nothing about ducks!
So that required some very serious thinking about.  What would they live in - oh, they don't need a special house, we were assured, they can just wander about.   Mm, not sure about that and trying to fence in almost 8,000 sq.m. of land is very trickly as most of it is in terraces.   And what about water - don't ducks need a pond?  Oh no, a children's paddling pool will do or an old bucket sunk into the ground.
We were not convinced.  And what is the point of ducks anyway?  They don't even lay that many eggs.  So that was it - zero votes for keeping ducks.  But then, our home farm handbook declared that they would 'delight and amuse us.'  And that we could believe so now we just needed to make a home for them.  And a pond. Bucket, indeed!
Once the little guys arrived, we unfurled them from the sack they had been transported in - the pet carrier having been rejected by the farmer.  And of course we had to give them a proper welcome from the comfort of the kitchen.

Ooh, a little bigger than we were expecting but still decidedly cute.  And probably a very good thing they weren't tiny babies because they would need too much looking after and I wouldn't get any work done for coo-ing over them!
So - time to show them their home and their little pond.  At first, they were rather reluctant to get their feet wet and preferred to sit down at the edge of it.

But once in, they really took to it like, well you know, with lots of duck-diving and even swimming underwater.  This was great for us spectators!  And the ducks looked as if they were really enjoying it too, until that is, they scared themselves silly by splashing and that's when they really did delight and amuse.  If you would also like to be delighted and amused - here is a You Tube video of them.  It's really quite funny and whilst we doubtless still have lots to learn, we are really enjoying these new additions to the finca.