Our five little Indian Runner ducks are four weeks old now, and absolutely adorable (pictures will come at some point, I promise). They are still spending nights in a pen in our indoor porch, until we get the duck house built (hopefully this weekend), but their days are spent outside.
They have us trained so that in the morning we open their pen door, they peep, quack, and waddle through the porch onto the deck and then one by one flip-flop their way down the stairs to the grass and waddle in an urgent shuffle together to their kiddie pool. They spend their days splashing in the kiddie pool, eating grass and bugs, exploring the yard, and getting acquainted with the chickens. Around 8 PM, from the evening hush there arises a tremendous peeping and quacking from the backyard as the ducks decide en masse that it's time to go to bed, at which point they shuffle back across the yard up to the stairs, and hop and flop their way up the steps (it's remarkable to see ducklings doing this). We open the porch door, and they peep/quack/waddle their way through our porch back into their pen. If we merely open the porch door and then take the liberty of going back in the house to finish whatever we were doing while they go into their pen by themselves, they emit a very special, nasal, high-pitched, URGENT peep, which means that YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO STAY WITH US UNTIL WE MAKE IT ALL THE WAY INTO OUR PEN, THANKYOUVERYMUCH!!! Once they're in their pen and the door's closed, we're at liberty to do whatever we please.
Life is good.
Ducklings at a little under 3 weeks old.
Their first swim hole! The "pond" left over from an above-ground pool.
Some of our year-old flock behind the coop.
Swimming in their current "pond." We are having some folks from a local eco-friendly pond building place visit us soon to advise us about building a pond in our yard.
On their way up the steps to bed tonight...
...and up...
...and in to bed.
