We ordered six Indian Runner duck eggs through eBay and they arrived safely in the post. They were popped in our incubator and after four weeks showed signs of hatching, which they all did within twenty four hours. We kept the ducklings in a heated ‘nursery’ (a bit like a plant propagator) in our kitchen for about ten days till they got too big (… and too smelly!) before moving them out to the greenhouse to grow on. They spent their daytimes in one of the raised vegetable beds in the front garden and enjoyed a regular swim. Later they moved on to a separate pen next to our three older ducks on the lower terrace whilst the new run was being constructed at the bottom of the garden.
Eventually the ducklings decided which were girls by quacking (or not) and these two soon joined the older three. We kept the four drakes for another ten days just in case anyone else decided to quack (which they didn’t) so made arrangements with a friend on the other side of Petersfield to release the boys in a lake used for carp rearing. They seemed quite happy with that arrangement!
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