Hello and Welcome!
There are many duck-keepers with much more knowledge than I have, but I'm happy to give you answers, and let them correct if I'm wrong, so I can learn too.
I have a flock of five runners, all girl. Yes, fertilized and unfertilized eggs are safe to eat both. I made a nightcoop for them using pallets, cheap and affordable. Bedding is straw, changed every few days. If I have to run to work and I'm late, I just fork the bedding upside down. In the morning I let them out to the chicken wired run which has a small "lake" (well, it's pretty much a mudhole these days, more or less), where they stay still midday. Winter i's cold here, so this "half day prison" is because they eat more if they do not have the option to run like a bunch of ever-happy village idiots, which helps building a protective layer of fat. After dinner I let them out, and they roam around happily till the night comes, when they move to their home to sleep. When they were babies I fed them duckling food (broken little pellets), also they had a small tray with half-peppercorn sized gravel. "Washed white river-gravel" we call it. I had not gave them niacin, this premix designed for ducklings had everything in it (organic too, GMO-crops are banned in Hungary under very severe penalties).
When they were two weeks old I started to give them little amounts of iceberg lettuce and cooked carrots, and later I mixed it with weeds I want to be removed from the garden. Worked perfectly well, they remembered that those weeds are special (because I gave them as a treat), so they select the sprouts first. Also, main reason was to get ducks is the slugs. They ate all. And all the snails too. This year we will probably have more
cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha, "may bug") than in 2012 (as their number is fluctuating yearly), I wonder that will my ducks eat them.
When there are no bugs in the garden (crickets! they love crickets) for added protein a freshwater live baitfish cut to chunks is good fro them, but they do love mealworms too (which is quite expensive, a good handful is appx. two USD). My ducks were born in 2012 June and today I had the first egg. In response to this, from tomorrow they will have oyster shell as a side dish. Their diet is now cracked corn and whole wheat, 50/50, also in the afternoons they eat sprouts, lots of them, they pull it out from under the snow.
Always, always place water nearby their food, in a bucket that is deep enough for them ti clean their eyes and nostrils. And their muddy beaks and feet. Therefore, "fresh water" and "clean water" is as clean... well, "duck clean". They have different standards than human. Ducks love routine, so please try to do things at around the same time. Open the coop when the sun rises, close it when it sets. Runners are very curious and great pets, but you have to keep in mind that they are closer to wild ducks than say, Pekins, so don't scare them, and handle only when necessary.
Just my two cents, have fun, and good luck with your flock! Buy at least 4-5, they love and need each others company. Drake is not necessary if you don't plan to breed them, they will lay without drakes too, just as well and even more (drakes have quite a libido, which can be harsh on some birds, especially if the drake has a "favourite").
