Trust me, you don't. Even as ducklings they don't have much personality. When they grow up ducks are not good pets. They smell and they are usually not very sociable.
well, i sort of agree, and disagree.
growing up on a small ranch, i raised a pair of ducklings--jannie and frannie (original, i know). they ARE messy, and seem to have a knack for locating any collection of clean water, such as my baby sister's kiddie pool, and quickly transforming it into a dirty, smelly duck pond in short order.
on the upside, they're super cute when they wag their curly-feathered tails at you (and an impression that i apparently began perfecting quite early on, as my grandparents seldom failed to capture in more than one childhood movie starring me).
they're also more "flock bound" than chickens which simply makes them easier to keep and turn loose. they stick together, even if it's to splash one another and bathe in a filthy 1' diameter mud puddle.
and then of course there are duck eggs, which are entirely delicious and well worth the trouble of keeping the messy ducks.
duck eggs taste like the chicken's immature, richer cousin. : )
oh and one more thing. they're a lot smarter than turkeys--they're really dumb. one year i left the sprinklers running on the lawn and two of our turkeys drowned.
true story.
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