A chick named Cuckoo raised by a duck!

Chris Hammacott and her husband live on a small croft in the Outer Hebrides, they keep a ‘no kill’ flock or rare and rescue sheep which they use to spin and weave rugs. They also share the 8 acres with hens, ducks, cats and 9 rescue pugs.

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Spring was in the air here in the Hebrides, and if nothing else happened I might have to start cleaning, perish the thought. Suddenly I heard the outside door bang open and Andrew called from the hall “come and see”. So to save making a whole arachnid subspecies homeless, I went down to see what he had found this time. It was already clear from the noise that Brenda the white duck was not happy being held under Andrews arm and he handed her to me where I soothed her ruffled feathers. “I knew she was up to something,” he said nodding at the now quiet duck. “I followed her after feeding and she has a nest in the wood, I could hear a noise and we have our first duckling. In a real ta dah moment he withdrew his hand from his pocket and, as he opened it, a loud peeping could be heard, and the fluff ball looked round. It had a tiny yellow beak not the black bill I would have expected and its feet were clawed not webbed. We had a chick not a duckling and, as Andrew and I looked at one another, we both said “Cuckoo”!

It is not unusual for a chicken to lay an egg or more in any nest that is empty and clearly this is what had happened. Poor old Brenda had been sitting so well on her nest in the wood, and when we checked later yes there were 12 duck eggs all infertile and the one broken egg shell from a hen’s egg. However Brenda knew an egg had hatched and that baby was hers, so they were both ensconced in a house and run as the chick needed protection from the ravens and passing cats, and life returned for a time to normal. Brenda with a sole offspring was an attentive mother for about a week then you could see she lost interest. She spent her days making duck eyes at any passing drake often whilst absentmindedly standing on Cuckoo who seemed to take this as part of chickhood. But he adored Brenda and did his best to keep out of her way.

Prophet of doom