The Joys of Raising Ducks

Reader Contribution by Fala Burnette and Wolf Branch Homestead
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The day my husband and I went to pick out our very first group of baby chickens together, he added a stipulation. My husband grew up around his grandfather’s huge flock of chickens and ducks, and so he told me, “I get to have ducks, too.” I agreed hesitantly, having no experience with ducks other than seeing my best friend raising them while we were in high school.

A short time later, we were bringing home two little brown ducklings from a local auction. They weren’t old enough to have feathers developed, but were already a few weeks old. We were both new to owning them ourselves, so we had no idea what they were or even what gender they may be! Thanks to the help of a great poultry forum called BackYard Chickens, we soon were able to tell what breed and gender they both were. Our journey with two female Khaki Campbell ducks began here.

When the ducks got a little bit older, we gave them a kiddie pool to swim in. Even though it gets messy very fast, the day we change their water out is full of laughter. Both the ducks climb into the pool calmly and get a little to drink, then suddenly begin swimming around very fast and flapping their wings like crazy in the water. It seems like half the kiddie pool is emptied by the time they get done, because they have so much fun splashing it all out.

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