Our Indian Runner Ducks
Runners were introduced from Malaya by a sea captain returning home to Dumfries. They are prolific layers of relatively large eggs for the size of bird. Though very active they are too heavy to fly so can be restrained by low fencing. They are comically upright with the body normally angled between 50º and 80º, but when alert or excited it has an almost perpendicular stance.
Ducks can be very messy in a confined space, even ducklings. So when they were babies and the weather wasn't warm enough for them to go outside, they took over the greenhouse, where they were safe yet had plenty of room and where the floor could be easily hosed down when they were brought in at bedtime.
The top two are white runners, while those below are mixed and on the right is one of our Cayugas hatched at the same time.
Now all our ducks wander around together when we don't need eggs for hatching. There is no fighting between the males and everyone gets on well together. The only troublesome duck we have had was a Swedish Blue male who took a fancy to my free-ranging hens - so he had to go. Puddle is now living in Derbyshire with my sister's Muscovy and Aylesbury ducks which are more his size and quite able to take care of themselves.
They didn't know what to make of the snow at first and certainly don't like their paddling pool being frozen. I think they were glad when it went and they could get back to foraging through the grass for tasty morsels without getting snow up their nostrils!
Behind the ducks you can see a large blue plastic shell (half an Argos sand-pit) which we use as a splash pool for the ducks. The advantage over a more permanent pond is that it can be easily emptied on a regular basis to keep the water clean for them. As stated previously ducks are pretty dirty in a confined space. Running water is the ideal solution but we are not fortunate enough to have a stream in our garden.
St George's Day 2004 - Two new additions to our Runner Duck
flock. The Saxony is a new colour this year in the British Standards though it
has been recognised for longer in Germany. Both these colours caught my eye when
I went to pick my Abacott Rangers up, so I had a female of each!