Indian Runner Ducks

Meet Bonnie and Clyde from Swanannoa. A mating pair of Indian Runner Ducks that are the latest additions to River Rest.

Ducks in general are excellent foragers. Known as insect, snail and slug exterminators. Runners lay more eggs per year than chickens. Duck eggs are also about 25% larger that chicken eggs. They are great for baking and taste pretty darn good too. Runners are also meat birds making them dual purpose.

Runners have a very unique appearance. They have been described as a wine bottle with a head and legs. They also have a more smooth running gait rather than waddle.

We  picked up Bonnie and Clyde last Saturday. We enjoyed meeting Pat and her son Darius(who actually named them). They have quite a menagerie including; ducks, chickens, goats, miniature donkeys, dogs, cats and a pair Capybara. Each one was a rescue animal. I could tell that they both have a good heart and are very good to their animals.

Along with the pair of ducks we came home with 9 fertile duck eggs. One of our hens, Red, went broody again. She just successfully raised a clutch of chicks. Since we no longer have a rooster we thought, hey let’s sit her on some duck eggs. I’ve read where a chicken hen will raise duckings so we decided to give her a chance. We gave her 7 eggs (kept 2 for breakfast). Duck eggs take about 28 days to incubate (chicken eggs take 20-21 days) so Red has about 21 days to go.

It’s going to be interesting to watch a chicken raise a flock of ducklings. Charley mused the other day about how Red might freak out the first time she takes them to the creek for a drink and the ducklings jump into the water!

You may ask, why we didn’t let Bonnie have the eggs. Well as far as I can tell she is not feeling broody. If she wants to take over raising them after they hatch then that’s between her and Red. Right now her job is to provide us with eggs for our table. It’s Clyde’s job to make them fertile so we can raise more Runners. They are very loving to each other and seem to like having the chickens around. They are very shy around us and it’s been hard to get good photos of them. I’m hoping that they will eventually warm up to us.