Ducklings

We have four little Bantam ducklings.  

Ember, Shadow, River and Thunder.  

They are about a week old and came from an older woman that raises ducks and chickens.  Do you see those little holes in their feet?  She punches holes to sex them and to keep track of their breeding lines. (Not sure I like this idea....)

  She gave us two males and two females with no cross breeding so that we can raise duckling ourselves.  They do lay eggs but are not considered a top layer by any means.

They will stay small as like Bantam chickens.

We were hoping to get good layers, but these were all that we could come across this late in the spring without ordering from a mail order source.  And selling little ducklings may be a nice little side business for one of the children.

The primary reason we wanted to get ducks (well, really their cuteness is a major attraction!) but from a homesteading point of view, was to help get our pond in a more natural balance.   Right now we have huge populations of frogs with clumps of frog eggs all over.  And do you know who likes frog eggs?  Leeches!  Yeck!!  

So, ducks will eat small frogs and I am guessing the little tadpoles too.

I also read duck droppings encourage microscopic pond life that hold back algae.   How cool is that? 

They also forage in gardens, at least that is what I have read, and eat slugs and bugs.