My Duckling Adventure

Our house is situated on a pond shared by a couple of other residences.  It is referred to as “The duck pond” because it was designed to allow migrating ducks a reprieve from their long journey.  However, for me, the appeal of a house with a pond was the possibility of having domesticated ducks.  I had heard that they make excellent pets and with the right breeds, they won’t migrate.

Eager, I skimmed several duck online owner advice pages hoping for nuggets of information and hints on breeds.  Boy did I find lots of advice but, like a marriage, you really don’t know what you’re getting into until your neck deep in it.

For example, you can read that a duck is messy BUT you won’t understand until your cleaning their box twice a day and it is messed up again within an hour.  You can read ducks like water, but what they fail to say is that they will suck every drop down in a water feeder within five minutes of replenishment saturating the wood shavings, themselves, and everything they touch.  They are eager to write about how ducks imprint on humans quickly but they don’t tell you they spaz out any time you get near no matter how much you try to coax them otherwise.  They tell you a lot of stuff but in the end you wonder if they ever owned a duck – for real.

All I know is that I can’t wait until they are old enough to swim in the pond.  Babies are demanding, time consuming, and a giant pain.  I know this though because I have had puppies, piglets, foals, chicks, and a kid.  The bottom-line is they are all obnoxious but because they are so cute and funny, we love them anyway.

Here is my funny poem about my Ducklings:

They are ducklings

Who live with me

In a house of couplings

Even though they are three

I feed feed feed

They squeek squeek squeek

I water water water

They get broader broader broader

But there is one

Who is larger

He is not fun

He is harder

He demands more food

And makes more mess

His noises are rude

But I don’t love him less

Because we are birds of a feather

In this house of squares

All living together

Forever ours and Forever theirs’