Henry has now been interacting with the girls unsupervised. Except for the very first time where there was a decent amount of nipping and biting, especially between him and one of the Cayugas, everyone has been very polite with each other. The girls always stay pretty close together, even before Henry, and Henry just follows the group around. He bathes a lot so that’s a good sign of healthy, happy duck. He sticks up his feathered little butt quite a bit while bathing, so I wonder if he is used to a bigger bathing area than a 9-gallon pool?

I spoke to Millie Holderread Saturday night to give her an update and told her that I had at least been able to get him to eat goldfish on two occasions. In a rather worried and skeptical way, she asked, “What else does he have to eat besides goldfish?!?” It turns out that on the Holderread farm, the ducks eat pellets or crumbles so poor Henry probably doesn’t realize that what the girls are eating is actually food.

So I called Tractor Supply to confirm that they had Purina Organic Start and Grow (the Organic version of Flock Raiser), and made the 30 minute drive there only to find that they were closed!!!!! Fortunately the helpful guy who I had talked to on the phone was still there and let me buy a bag for poor Henry. I was especially glad that I brought a bag of duck eggs for the man to thank him. (Not sure what he thought of the eggs – I think I may have weirded him out … )