The brood of 29 waddling ducklings amazing drivers

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So spare a thought for this mother mallard, trying to keep track of 29 ducklings within yards of the busy A1.

Since the huge brood appeared they have become the star attraction at Baldock Services in Hertfordshire, with staff leaving out bread and truckers pausing to let them cross the road.

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What a handful : The family of 29 with proud mum

Workers say there were originally 40 but more than a quarter have fallen by the wayside. If they all belonged to the same clutch it would be a record.

One worker said: "We all joke that they speed up when they pass Kentucky Fried Chicken."

Drivers watch in amazement as the huge brood crosses the road

The duck dossier:

• The mallard is the most common duck in the Northern Hemisphere.

• The average clutch is of about a dozen eggs although in rare cases there can be up to 18.

• In the Baldock case, experts suspect there has been 'egg dumping', where more than one female lays in the same nest, although this mother could be looking after the offspring of another which was killed on the road.

• Mallards are highly sexed, with females often drowning when five or six males try to mate with them at once. Homosexuality is also a common phenomenon. Up to a fifth of males are said to be gay.