see what we found

Out early  in the morning , we found this  duckling trying to get out of the pond.   No sign of its mother, or any other ducks ( ours were still locked up) . Ours get counted in and locked in every night , so we don't think one has surreptitiously been sitting on some eggs. Although the eggs will probably survive if left for couple of hours  and then re-incubated  , they wont survive left overnight, 

So we think its a wild duck that has hatched some and this little one got separated, or lost, and go carried down on the stream.

So what to do ? We could just leave it and let it take its chance  of either the mother finding it (very unlikely) or it succumbing to the hooded crows (very likely)   or it dieing of cold and starvation (very  likely). 

So what we did is  take the eggs off one of our broody hens and  put them in the incubator

 and  slipped the duckling under the broody hen.  She seems to have accepted it and they have been moved to the chick run and  given access to food and water  

  So we shall see what happens.