raising ducks and chickens together

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I’m not sure where the phrase “like a duck to water” comes from, but I do know that our ducks have never heard it.

They outgrew the pan of water that we put in their pen so Rachel and I bought a small wading pool.  Negotiating around the garden center with a pool in the buggy was quite a challenge.

We got it home and discovered there were directions for assembling the wading pool.It has been a long time since I bought a wading pool but I’m pretty sure they are not hard to set up.  The instructions included a lanyard to be worn by the adult responsible for watching the children in the pool.

Since ducks are naturally good swimmers, we threw the lanyard away.

At the suggestion of the person who gave us the ducks, we put down a layer of mulch under the pool to keep down the mud.  The chickens thought this was for their entertainment and promptly begin scratching all the mulch out from under the pool.

The ducks were less impressed with their new “pond.” Rachel threw them in and they immediately climbed out as though it were boiling water.

We moved to plan B. Put the pool on more level ground. Surely the ducks would like it then. Wrong.

Rachel suggested digging an indentation to make the pool more level with the ground.  Sounded like a good idea to me.

So on to plan C. After wearing a blister on my hand, I had a shallow hole in which to set the pool.  I filled it with water and went inside to bandage my wound.

While enjoying some nice cold water, I glanced out the window to see the ducks in the pool!!!!  I was so thrilled I jumped up to get a picture.  They immediately jumped out.

Since then they have been in the water many times and I have tried to photograph them. This is the best I could do.

Any time I get closer, they exit the pool.  I’ve considered installing a camera in one of the trees.

I guess they finally heard the phrase “Like a duck to water.”