The Problem with Raising Ducks in the House...

We had never really considered owning ducks before we rescued Herbie the Duck. He seems awfully lonely since he's the only species we only have ONE of, which probably explains why he believes he is a cow. The poor thing eats with the cows, sleeps with the cows, and herds the girls by biting at their ankles if he thinks they need to be somewhere other than where they want to be (which goes over amazingly well with irritated, uncomfortable pregnant cows, just for your future reference).

Last summer, we decided we needed to get Herbie some same-species friends. The ducklings arrived in early December from Metzer Farms (who I would wholeheartedly recommend, by the way) and it was way too cold to consider raising them outside.

We ordered 25 ducklings, planning that we'd probably lose at least half of the little ducks to mortality, either in shipping or during the first hard month of life. Fortunately, we haven't lost anyone, and the ducks are still growing like weeds. Unfortunately, we now have twice as many ducks as we'd planned. They are probably big enough to live outside now, truthfully, but they are just so delightful that we'd miss them if we moved them now.

They are in that ugly teenage phase that all waterfowl and poultry go through where their downy baby feathers are falling out but haven't yet been replaced by their adult feathers. They are just learning how to quack instead of chirp. They always look so shocked when mid-chirp, a huge quack comes out instead...

We know they can't live in the basement forever, but we're happy for now to enjoy hand-raising our little flock of "too many" ducks inside the house.

Which leads me to the question - what's the strangest animal you've ever raised in your house? (...you know, teenage boys excluded...)

In other news, the pair of full-beaded, custom adult moccasins I've been working on are coming along nicely. I'm about 12 hours in and only about one-fifth complete, but I thought I'd share a sneak peek all the same.