FRONT AND CENTRE | Nazareth fan blown away by the kindness of a fellow fan - publicly thanks her [A4]
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Sunday, July 6, 2014
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Hen answers the call
“She is very protective and worries about them all day.”
LISA VANDERVELDE/ MORNING STAR
A hen mothers the five dayold ducklings she hatched on Farmer Val’s Farm in Coldstream Thursday. For a video of the odd mother duck visit www.vernonmorningstar. com
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Some mothers just can’t help themselves. This is the case at Farmer Val’s in Coldstream, where a hen has adopted nine orphaned ducklings. The mother hen happily clucks and scratches as her ducklings flit around her jumping in and out of a pan of water. Val Buchanan, of Farmer Val’s Farm Tours, had duck eggs brought to her hobby farm after their nest was found by a neighbour in a freshly hayed field, with no sign of the parents. — Val Buchanan She had a broody hen (one that wants to sit on eggs) so she sat the standard chicken on the eggs and 24 hours later she had nine ducklings, or dickens as she likes to call them. “She (the hen) is very protective and worries about them all day swimming, she takes them into the chicken house at night and waits for them all to get ready for bed,” said Buchanan. Once the ducks get old enough she will set them free on the natural pond on her property, where wild ducks visit, to join a flock. Buchanan is confident that they will return to the farm one day because female ducks usually return to the place they were raised to lay their eggs. She had a hen raise a duck seven years ago and she has returned every year to have her babies. Buchanan has lived at the Coldstream Creek Road farm her whole life. Her family, the Seymours, have been on the property since the early 1900s.
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Fields aren’t for the dogs
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A tight leash remains on dogs at a Vernon park. Despite some public complaints about enforcement of rules, the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee won’t back off new signs that insist dogs must be on-leash in specified areas at Marshall Field. “There are a lot of dog owners but it shouldn’t supersede sports field users and never endanger anyone,” said director Maria Besso. Dogs have only ever been allowed on a leash around the perimeter of Marshall Field and not on the sports fields at any time. But new signs outlining the rules were installed after an adult was bitten by a dog and had to be sent to hospital for treatment. “The person who was attacked was lining the field for a kids’ soccer game,” said director Bob Fleming, adding that the situation could have been far worse had the victim been a child. GVAC officials insist that such incidents create liability for taxpayers as public safety in parks is paramount. “I’ve treated a lot of dog bites and bites involving children are traumatic for many years,” said director Rob Sawatzky, who is a retired physician. There have been about 15 reported attacks at Marshall Field since 2004. “Dogs off-leash are also attacking dogs on the leash,” said Pat Kilt, with K9 Dog Control. Other issues also arise from dogs at large. “When dogs are allowed to run off-leash and do their business, it’s often not recovered,” said Juliette Cunningham, GVAC chairperson. Reinforcement of the rules hasn’t gone over well with some residents. “We have had signs vandalized and removed,” said Tannis Nelson, community development co-ordinator. Beyond Marshall Field, dogs off-leash are also a problem in other parks, with about 15 warnings issued a day in Greater Vernon. “I have one fellow (officer) who goes from park to park all day, every day,” said Ellis.
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