A broody hen adopted a duck egg bought from Waitrose in Salisbury and is now raising the duckling as one of her own.

About a month ago, Salisbury medical secretary Samantha Bowling went to Waitrose with her husband Tom to pick up "a few bits that we couldn't get from other places".

They bought half a dozen Clarence Court duck eggs, as a colleague had recommended duck eggs to make a cake.

Samantha says she used four of these eggs for the cake and put two under her broody Welsummer bantam hen, Jemima.

The chicken adopted the duck eggs and incubated them herself.

Sadly, one egg didn't make it but after 29 days one yellow duckling hatched.

Samantha said: "We had this broody hen and she didn't have any eggs to sit on and I'd read that people had done this before. I slipped a couple of the duck eggs under her to see what happened and they started to develop.

"They say it's quite a rare occurrence. She's basically adopted the egg, so she may not realise it's a duck. She probably thinks it's a chicken."

The family, including son Jamie, are keeping the duckling and have named her Honey. They say Jemima is a "very protective mum".

For the time being, Honey splashes around in a washing up bowl but they say that when she gets bigger and free ranges in the garden, she will have a paddling pool.

Samantha adds: "Honey is very precious and it is amazing that she could have ended up in a cake!"

Get more Salisbury news

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

If you want online news with fewer ads, unlimited access and reader rewards - plus a chance to support our local journalism - find out more about registering or a digital subscription.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.