Little Ducky Babies - a photo timeline

[LT71689]

I had the immense pleasure of raising a pair of Pekin ducklings during this quarantine summer, from the afternoon they hatched onward for 9 weeks. I took about 800 billion photos of them and eventually narrowed them down into a book I had printed for myself when they left me to live on their forever farm with a lot more ducky friends.

Just thought I'd share some ducky cuteness

Link to the full book spread

Triscuit and Melba - my two little quackers.

 

[Fuchsia]

They are so cute!

 

[Fuchsia]

Did you give them away?

 

[LT71689]

And some goofs that didnt make it into the book

 

[LT71689]

Did you give them away?

Short version - yes. They had a bit of an odd story.

There's a local poultry farm that does loaner ducklings "for a few weeks" in their spring/summer hatching schedule. The idea being that anybody (but probably mostly families with little kids) can raise a couple baby ducks for a week or two and then when they get too big or smelly or needy or the kid loses interest because its not tiny and yellow anymore, you just give them back to the farm - no commitment, you've enriched your kids life and you raised a couple ducks. Pretty neat program.

I typically travel way too much to have any pets at home (which breaks my heart, but I know its for the best) but when the pandemic hit and I knew I was absolutely not going anywhere for a long time, I tried fostering a cat. Everyone else in town seemingly had the same idea because none of the rescues/agencies I applied at got back to me, some even took their application pages off-line and said they werent able to keep up with all the emails they were getting. Good for the cats, but bad for me cuz I was really bummed about it. A local lifestyle blogsite ran an article about the ducks and I jumped on it, with the full understanding that they were intended to be meat birds and they were supposed to go back to the farm whenever I was done with them.

But then I actually met them and fell way too much in love, so I ultimately adopted them (which you can also do from this place, you can just show up and buy ducklings and whatever you do with them after that is your business, they dont HAVE to be meat birds, but that is primarily what this farm raises them for) and arranged a forever home for them with someone who keeps ducks and chickens as their pets, so they'll never be eaten. They're in a big mixed flock with a handful of runners, some khakis, a pair of muscovies, and a couple others I didnt get an ID on (and a whole mess of chickens) They've got a nice pond and a ton of yard to free-range on. We're still in quarantine and honestly they werent any trouble at all to keep in the house and I could have kept them....basically until it's safe for me to start traveling again...whenever that is...but I didnt want them to get too used to being house ducks and only the two of them, so they left at 9 weeks back in mid-august. I wanted them to have some summer out in the yard before the weather changed.

 

[Isaac 0]

Adorable photos!