For as long as I can remember, I have loved ducks. One of my favorite childhood memories is singing and feeding ducks with my Nana while her brother/my great uncle visited his wife in the hospital. These days I usually stop and chat with any duck I happen to meet, though I now skip giving them unhealthy bread. 

It’s been our intention all along to have ducks at Star & Sparrow. So even though we weren’t exactly ready for them a few weeks ago, Bryon and I jumped at the opportunity to bring a few home. Because sometimes when you go to a neighbor’s house to buy their extra bag of organic turkey feed, you are offered the chance to purchase three Welsh Harlequin ducks. And of course you say “yes, please hold!” while you get the bird yard ready for their arrival.

Originating from Khaki Campbell ducks, the Welsh Harlequin came to be in the mid 20th century. A Royal Air Force captain/short story writer in Wales noticed some of his Khaki Campbells—themselves a cross of other breeds—had unique coloration. He began breeding for that trait, and so begat the vibrantly plumed Welsh Harlequin. Not only are these birds gorgeous, but they have delightful personalities to match. Almost as importantly, they are prolific egg layers and are typically good at hatching their own eggs.

That wasn’t the case with our ducks. When our neighbor told us about the babies’ arrival in late May, she shared that two of the ducks were hatched by a chicken and one by a turkey. Which explains why one of the ducks seemed enamored with the turkeys when they moved into the run next door. It also shows how awesome nature can be in that sometimes a turkey raises a duck or a pit bull raises a kitten, tugging at your heart strings with all the sweetness.

As much as we have enjoyed watching the ducks put their magic bills to use collecting bugs in the grass, inspiration for naming was illusive. The name for the drake (male) came to me right away: Wendell, after Wendell Berry, the writer and farmer. Quick aside: Bryon and I had one of his poems read at our wedding. But for the two females, I hemmed and hawed, er, gobbled and quacked while I tried to think of farm or food-focused writers. One girl we’d just been calling Turducken for her tendency to hang out close to the turkeys and grab their dandelions through the fence. (Magic bills, we tell you!) But now we can finally introduce Wendell, Mary Berry, and Ruth.

We are still a month or two out from expecting eggs and perhaps some ducklings in the future…if we’re lucky. In the meantime, I no longer get quite as upset about finding slugs in the garden, since the ducks are happy to get the treats. When the garden is mostly done, we plan to let them loose to chomp on slugs and weeds. They will help us—including with fertilization—and they can forage to their hearts’ content, as nature intended. As plans like this fall into place, this whole farming thing starts to feel more real.