Bombay Slows Down

Fewer beak to bill encounters with the chickens

- Martin Gurdon

This might be a column about chickens, but over the years ducks have intruded.

For the past decade our lives have been graced, if that’s the word, by an Indian Runner drake called Bombay, a tall, ungainly and often-randy creature who now cohabits with a blonde girlfriend called Cloud and an as yet unnamed brunette.

During successive summers Bombay’s sap would rise, and he’d war with various freerange cockerels that headed our chicken flocks. We ended up keeping them apart between about April and September.

Bombay also developed weird lusts for big, blond chickens, dragging one into the pond in a fit of deviant passion. He sired several generations of other ducks, so he’s had a good innings and a good time, but age is starting to catch him up.