duck!

That's right.  Duck.  Or, ducks, to be exact.

We expanded our little homestead by four yesterday.  We had planned to get some ducklings this year but when we heard the sad news that our little local hatchery was going out of business and selling off their breeding stock, we changed our plans a little.

I stopped over and picked up three Pekin ducks, a boy and two girls that we hope will breed and produce eggs.  I also brought home a runner duck just because I've always wanted one and I couldn't resist.  He's the shy splotchy one in the first photo.  He runs, rather than waddles, and walks more upright than other ducks.  He sort of looks like a bowling pin.  I'm sure there will be lots of photos once he gets a little more comfortable around us.

I wasn't planning on having new members of the family so soon, so I made a makeshift run in the unfinished coop that we planned to use for new chicks.  They didn't seem to mind, but you could see their bills watering when they got an eyeful of the green sprouts popping up in the lawn just outside their fence  Soon I'll finish the chicken tractor so they can forage safely in the yard.  (ducks are hawk-magnets here so they can't wander unattended just yet)

Though they are not tame like our chickens, they weren't aggressive when we picked them up, or when my youngest invaded their living quarters.  Given that she is always carrying the chickens around, the ducks should probably get used to the idea now.

The skinnier chickens have already figured out that they can squeeze under the coop and get into the ducks' pen, a flaw that will be corrected today, and helped themselves to the ducks' food.  Greedy little things.  After a food and water re-fill the ducks were contentedly nibbling away, and life was peaceful.

I'm looking forward to getting to know these little guys.  I've already fallen a little in love.