My boyfriend and I have a mixed flock of 8 and it's been such a joy, despite the "are we in over our heads?" moments. I've admired ducks my whole life and since moving in with him am finally in a living situation that allows for them (outside of town, giant yard, no neighbors to complain about anything).
We'd been talking about ducks for a while, and then back in early May, a lady nearby was rehoming three youngin's (two were about 6 weeks old and the third was 3-4 weeks) that her husband had bought from
TSC without realizing how much work it was going to be or that they were really going to need to be outside. We didn't know the breeds or sexes, and they turned out to be a male and female Jumbo Pekin and a male Muscovy (from what I've read, it's odd for a Muscovy to turn up in
TSC stock, so I guess we're just lucky). We had thought that the Muscovy was female, until it became clear that he wasn't, and at the point we started making preparations for more ducks.
We ordered a female Cayuga and a male and female Welsh Harlequin from Metzer. Unfortunately, we lost the female Welsh the day after receiving them (I hadn't wanted to order another male but my bf wanted to), meaning we were still short a female, so we had to have them send a replacement, and since they won't ship only one, we chose a female Blue Runner as well, taking us up to 7 ducks... pick them up at the post office, and lo and behold, they sent the replacement female Welsh... and TWO female Blue Runners. So we went from being happy with 3 to having 8!
It's been really great having them though, and it's so much fun getting them at 2-3 days old and watching them grow from that point, so no regrets, even if it means spending even more money to build an enclosure that will accommodate them all (the one we built originally could take five or six, and we'll hang onto it in case we ever need to separate them for any reason).
We named them after the main Friends cast, plus Janice (the female Pekin because she's a loudmouth) and Ursula (Phoebe's twin sister, so the Blue Runners are Phoebe and Ursula).
.....Kidding!...
