Duck Tales - part 1

Before we moved to Sweet Biddies Farm, these wannabe farmers tried their hands at raising ducks. There had been a little chatter between us about getting ducks. We had chickens. We had a coop. We would love some duck eggs to go along with our chicken eggs. So, why not?

One day while out and about with no intention of becoming a duck farmer that day, this girl made the decision that we needed to have ducks when she was faced with a whole smorgasbord of adorableness that is little tiny ducklings.

Like a little child, I was mesmerized by these little cuties. Trying to be practical - and an adult - I was able to walk away from them that day but it was hard. Those little babies stayed with me…haunted me even.

So, after some research and only good intentions, we drove back to pick out two little ducklings to join our chickens.

Two little crested ducks - with those cute little afros on top of their heads - became official members of the family.

The yellow one was christened Eli.

The yellow and brown one was christened Lucille.

(We had no idea what sex either of them were).

Now there is an upside and a downside that we all too quicly discovered to being duck owners.

Upside:

There was indeed an abundance of absolute adorableness in our household. Ducklings maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen.

EVER.

And they are hysterical to watch. Duck shenanigans may be the best kind of shenanigans there are.

Chicks are adorable and fun, yes. But they just cannot top ducklings.

I could watch ducklings for hours.

Downside:

For all that cuteness comes an equal amount of poop.

There may be nothing out there more adorable but there may be nothing out there that poops as much.

I mean nonstop poop.

Constant poop.

I think every time they took a step, poop came out.

It was ridiculous.

You may think chickens poop a lot but they have noting on ducks. I am even a little thankful for this experience because now I think nothing of chicken poop. I've faced far worse.

The worst was having to keep them inside when they were so small and dealing with cleaning out their bin, which was constant. But that was no big deal because just like the chicks, they would be moving outside to the coop soon enough.

They would be happy. I would be happy. Everyone would be happy…or so we thought…

Something we didn’t really consider about raising hens and ducks together is that hens are straight up bitches.

         Just horrible, mean…

                                             ...bitches.

Once they were big enough, out to the coop they went with not a thought about how the chickens would feel about new roommates. We really had absolutely no clue that our four hens would straight up bully the poor things. Our two rhode island reds were the worst. 

It was horrifying for me to watch Eli and Lucille just huddle together in a corner, completely terrified. 

I am sure that it would have gotten better. The ducks were still smaller than the chickens and surely they would fight back - I have dealt with plenty of angry ducks in my life - or at least, the hens would have gotten used to them. Right?

Not only did the guilt of having them being constantly tormented weigh on me, but the added guilt of not having water for them to swim in, just did me in.

Ducks don’t need water.

But ducks sure do want water.

Ducks LOVE water.

And our ducks were no different. Their happiest moments were when we put them in water. We didn’t have a pond for them. We didn’t even have a pool for them. Instead we just filled a plastic bin with water and let them swim around for a little while each day. It wasn’t much but that bin was more than enough for them.

They loved it.

In the water, they were no longer terrified. 

In the water, they had a short reprieve from their tormentors.

And I loved watching them happily splashing around.

It also made me very sad.

I absolutely hated to end their enjoyment and put them back in that coop. And leaving them out was not an option since the backyard was not fenced in. 

So, back in the coop they went. To wait out the night and most of the day huddled together in a corner.

Looking back I can see just how foolish we were to bring those ducks back home with us.

Now that we live on the farm with so much more space, I would certainly raise ducks without hesitation. But there would be a couple of things I would make sure to do:

I would give them their own space. 

I would make sure they had access to water. Of course a nice sized pond would be preferred – not just for duck reasons - but not happening any time soon. A little kiddie pool would actually suffice.

And I think that our chickens would have no problem with some ducks sharing their space since this coop has so much more room.

So, maybe one day soon, I can announce that Sweet Biddies Farm now features ducks. It would definitely add a lot of fun to the farm, along with a ton of gosh darn adorableness.

But whatever became of my two sweet ducklings???

I have wanted to tell the tragic tale of Eli and Lucille for a while now…