by David Jordan

Peep!  Peep!  Peepeppepeeeeeep!  Poop.  RUN AROUND THE WATER BIN!  RUN AROUND THE WATER BIN!  Try to fly.  Shake those tail feathers.  Peep!  Poop (again).  Eat. Eat. Eat.  Sleep.
        Welcome to the life of Lentil, Can't Buy Me Love, and Goose, Lorie's and my new ducklings.  We got them Sunday, May 15.  Lentil is the brown one, Love (for short) is the spotted one (looks like a duck in a cow-suit when she grows up), and Goose has a crest which looks more like the hair-do on Kid in Kid-n-Play.  Jeremy Hoehn has suggested an alternate lineup of Brown Cow, (can't remember Loves), and Little Puffhead.  We thank him for his participation, E for effort, but these names have been rejected.
        The ducks are ... awesome.  Right now they live in a kiddy-pool-turned-brooder, equipped with straw matting, an old goodwill dress, and a heat lamp.  Also some cardboard because the second day Love (for short) jumped the pool wall (she's quite precocious...)  They are very affectionate, if jumpy, which surprised me, what with them being birds and all.
        They'll stay inside for the next two weeks or so, getting bigger, and basking in the attention they get nightly from Lorie and me.  Then, when they're ready, we'll move em outside.  We built a pen for them with an enclosed area to keep out cats, and a super-secure area for night-time to keep out raccoons, who can be quite determined.
        At about 6-7 weeks, they should, healthily fed, start poppin' out eggs:  one every other day or so each.  They are also good garden helpers, picking off slugs and snails like candy.  We already tried some practice slugs that we caught on our bok-choy, and man they sucked em right down.
After a whole winter of waking up to slug-eaten bok-choy and broccoli, you can imagine the (twisted?) pleasure we got watching them natu

rally turn those little demons into fertilizer.  Adult ducks with enough space (they don't need much) can get anywhere from 20%-80% of their food from foraging, and indeed if possible they prefer this over store-bought feed.
        To anyone who might consider undertaking a duck-raising endeavor, I offer a bit of advice. 
1) They are really easy and inexpensive; all our setup for them was maybe $50 total, as we were able to get most of it off freecycle.org. 
2) www.newagrarian.com has an awesome web-journal and FAQ of this couple in North Carolina that raised seven in their backyard. Very helpful. 
3)  They are very, very, cute.
        Well I gotta run, they just pooped in their water dish, again.

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