We'd been putting Billy and Ellie together for short intervals to see how they got on, but Billy wouldn't leave Ellie alone - he seemed to have developed an unhealthy fascination with her eyes and kept pecking at them! After several introductory, supervised sessions they seemed ok so we put them in together yesterday afternoon.

The afternoon passed fairly peacefully, with Ellie even being bold enough to nick Billy's favourite sleeping corner for a snooze of her own! Billy just sat watching, powerless and a bit pathetic-looking! We had to then decide whether to put them in together for the night. As they were getting on so well we decided to leave them together.

I must admit, I barely slept a wink last night - I was so worried that we would come in this morning to find some sort of duck blood bath!! It's amazing how these lovely little creatures have completely taken over my life - if I'm not in there with them, they're sitting with me at my desk, running about on the floor or I'm thinking about them! I'm not the only one either - we're all obsessed!

I'm pleased to report however that both Billy and Ellie were in one piece when we arrived in this morning. However, Billy was being a little unfriendly towards his little sister so we've given them a little space for today and put them back in their own pens. Ellie seems much happier, but Billy is a little subdued - I think he's missing her - typical big brother and little sister relationship!!

Here's the thing though - we don't know whether Billy is a Billy or a Billie, and the same for Ellie. When can one, erm...tell? How does one...identify the things one needs to identify (if you know what I mean). Is this a big sister bullying her irritating little brother, or a big brother flexing his muscles?

Sibling rivalry, not just for us humans.