Meet Bubbles: The Little Duck We Raised

Noughts and Crosses Farm-Stay

Oct 20

3 min read

Bubbles, a brown duck with a blue wing patch, beside water beneath an olive tree at Noughts & Crosses Farm Stay.

The Adventures of Bubbles — Part One

If you see a brown duck bathing in the dogs’ water bowl beside our back patio, there’s a good chance you’ve met Bubbles.

She’s part of our flock here at Noughts & Crosses Farm Stay in Metricup, but her place in our family began with one late egg.

The egg left behind

One of our broody ducks had hatched five ducklings and was busy looking after her new family. One egg, however, hadn’t quite caught up. It had been pushed aside as Mother Duck turned her attention to the ducklings already following her.

We discovered the egg that morning and put it in the incubator.

A day later, Bubbles hatched.

We tried introducing her back to her duck family, hoping she could join the others. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t accept her. This little late arrival needed someone else to look after her.

That someone turned out to be us.

Bubbles as a tiny brown-and-yellow duckling standing on a towel indoors, with her dark webbed feet visible. — A little duck who decided we were family.

Bubbles the duck: a little shadow with webbed feet

It didn’t take long for Bubbles to decide we were her duck parents.

She followed us everywhere, her little webbed feet carrying her up and down the passageway behind me. Looking back at the photographs now, I remember just how small she was—and how quickly she became part of our everyday lives.

Even my trips to Perth for work included Bubbles. She travelled with her own little portable house, food and water, because leaving her behind wasn’t quite so straightforward when she thought her family was going without her.

She even came to a café with me once, sitting beside me on the grass.

There were baths in little dishes, time outside with Asher and another pet duck, and plenty of moments I hadn’t imagined when we first put that egg in the incubator.

Young Bubbles standing beside a resting yellow duckling, with Asher the brown-and-white border collie lying nearby on dry grass. — Growing up with a little help from the farm’s unofficial manager, Asher.

Finding her place among the ducks

As Bubbles grew, I realised that following me everywhere wasn’t a practical life for a fully grown duck. She needed the company of her own kind, too.

We took it slowly.

First, she stayed in a separate pen where she and the flock could see and talk to one another through the fence. Then we began letting her forage with them while we watched, giving her a separate place at night.

Little by little, they accepted her.

Watching her find her place was a relief, even if it meant my little shadow was becoming more independent. In time, she even raised her own brood of ducklings and proudly paraded them among the flock.

The little duck we had raised was now a mother herself.

Bubbles standing among brown and yellow ducklings on wood shavings in the poultry shelter, with a small black chick beside her. — The little duck we raised, now raising a family of her own.

Still our Bubbles

These days, Bubbles gets on with being a duck. She forages with the flock and sometimes comes over to see me, cautiously and on her own terms.

I still find myself looking for her and checking how she’s going. I’ll always have a tender spot for her.

And her fondness for bathing in bowls? That hasn’t changed.

As a duckling, a little white dish was enough. Today, the dogs’ outside water bowl seems to suit her perfectly.

Side-by-side images of Bubbles bathing as a duckling in a white dish and as an adult in the dogs’ metal water bowl. — A bigger bowl, but the same Bubbles.

The bowl has grown, and so has Bubbles. My soft spot for her is just the same.

There are more Bubbles stories to share. For now, this is where her adventures began—with one late egg and a little duck who decided we were family.

— Kaye

— Meet the rest of our farm family.