UrbanFarmer: The story of a duck named Stella (Artois)

Ducks are an interesting pet to have, we know. Fact of the matter is, they are actually really great pets. We got Stella in June 2010, from efowl.com, she was 24 hours old when we opened the box. We had seen some chicks in a feed store in Half Moon Bay the month before, and my boyfriend, Daryl, wanted to impulsively buy random chickens. I began to tell him what we would need to raise and keep fowl in an urban setting. He did not let it go.

So Daryl started to look into different types of urban fowl, and came across the Indian Runner Duck. Native of the Island of Java, they are flightless, great foragers for your garden pests (bugs), excellent producers of poop (a key soil component, natural fertilizer, high in phosphorous) and one of the highest producers of (free range) eggs in the duck world, over 200 eggs/year. These 3 beneficial qualities led me to give in to his pleas.

We ordered 2 ducks and named them Stella (my duck) and Confit (the BF's duck). This is a somewhat of a sad beginning, as you can see we only have Stella (our duck) now. We lost Confit at 2 weeks of age.

Stella and Confit in their brooder

Stella, 24 hours old

My girls

You can buy anything online, including duck diapers

We brooded them (and then just Stella) for a month inside. After a month we built a duck house for her and she has lived free range in our garden ever since. We lock her in her duck house at dusk every night and let her out at dawn every morning, this is crucial, unless you feel like feeding the raccoons. Raccoons have been knows to burrow up to a foot to get into fowl enclosures. It's important to build an impermeable barrier (with a very strong, very high lock) between wildlife and your domesticated fowl.

My Modern Art

Lets face it, I fell in love. With a duck? Well, she fell in love with me too. Ducks have extremely strong bonding mechanisms when they are very young, called imprinting. Usually ducks imprint on their mother, a duck. They tent to imprint on the individual who feeds, waters, and handles them, but most importantly, the individual they can physically see. We brooded Stella in my side of the couch in a big tub. They could not see Daryl, just me.

The result of this? She follows me like a shadow, talks to me, hugs me, loves me. I love, am loved by and have bonded... with a duck.

She still loves Daryl, but if she has a choice, usually she follows me. She's a nice girl. People are always worried about petting her, because they are worried she will peck. I just laugh.