We are now the proud parents of two beautiful ducks, Bo and Peep! Peep is a girl and is around six months old. Bo is a boy and is around a year old. They are Buff Orpingtons, a medium-size domesticated duck, with lovely fawn buff feathers, a brownish-orange bill, and a sweet personality.
A very sweet family at our church, Tony and Bonnie contacted us last week asking if we’d like to have their two ducks. Roy and I talked and sight unseen we said yes! We had several ducks when we lived on Hinson Road in Hammond and loved them. Not necessarily the poop they leave all over but everything else!
When Tony and Bonnie and their two precious girls brought the ducks to us we were delighted to see how beautiful they are. Even if they hadn’t been beautiful we’d have loved them. When we lived in Hammond we had a really ugly duck that we actually called “Ugly Duck!”
Bo and Peep were originally Faith and Peep. Since Faith turned out to be a boy we decided to change his name to Bo. Thus we have Bo and Peep!
Bonnie and Tony recommended leaving them caged for the first few days before introducing them to living uncaged on our property. We decided to leave them in there a week and have been visiting with them several times each day so they can get used to us and our voices. Plus we love visiting with them! I sing to them sometimes! And Roy quacks with them!
I love seeing them twist and contort their necks to clean themselves. They lay eggs (or ours would if they were girls) and their meat is what’s eaten when someone eats duck. I have no intention of eating them and we’ll see what happens with Peep laying eggs. 
This photo doesn’t show both of them entirely, it does show close up their beautiful feathers. We’ve been giving them fresh water each time we go visit and they seem to love it! Roy fed them some tiny pieces of watermelon. He said Peep really liked it and at all of it. It was just 5 small pieces. At Bonnie’s recommendation, we’ve both Googled what to feed ducks and have learned a lot. 
They only lived where they are in this picture on the first day. Since they need a cage of some sort we purchased one of our renters used dog cages. We moved the cage to behind our storage shed so they could stay in the shade and are more protected from nighttime attackers.
We learned that their cage needs to be covered at night in a way that will give them a place to keep away from those nighttime attackers. Even when they get to live outside the cage during the day they will be protected in their cage at night. Roy being the person who always gets the best thing he can for any situation researched covers for their night-time cage. He found and ordered this cover.
It wasn’t very expensive, but is made of very good quality waterproof material and covers all four sides and the top. Two sides are rolled up in the pictures so the ducks can enjoy the view. It even has a window and each side zips up to make it more secure!
We gave them a week in the cage to get used to where they live and get used to Roy and I taking care of them. Here they are experiencing their first taste of freedom
They headed for the water’s edge first thing and spent a good bit of time their first day out paddling around. They didn’t go very far in, just on the edge. The recent rains brought a lot of pine straw to our end of the pond. They cleared out a circle and played in that circle.
After spending most of the day in that area they came up our hill and hung around our back door. 
They go back in their cage at night. It’s been all cleaned up with fresh pine straw! 
We both thank Tony and Bonnie for giving these precious animals to us to love!
We’ll keep ya’ll updated (or as my friend Deborah said, duckdated!) on Bo and Peeps escapades!
Ya’ll have a Blessed Week!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 