By JODEE TAYLOR
We have both ducks and chickens on our little farm. They're pets, not meat.
Last summer, a broody chicken took to a communal pile of eggs. She hatched two chicks and a duckling.
The duckling behaved like a chick and did everything the chicks did, including following the hen around 24/7 and eating the chicken food.
The duckling grew about twice as fast as the chicks. It would often get stuck trying to take the same shortcuts the chicks took and it took far longer to figure out how to get up the three-inch step between the barn and the outdoors.
But the chicks and the hen and another hen who made it her life's work to help raise these babies just carried on, patiently waiting for the duckling to get where it had to be. Chickens appear to be far more intelligent than ducks. Just about everything appears to be far more intelligent than ducks.
It was all very fascinating to watch, because both species were very accommodating with each other. Apparently it takes a barnyard to raise a duckling.
But we figured it would be short-lived. We thought that when the duckling reached puberty it would come into its "duckness."
It didn't. It's fully grown, it's a male, his name is "Thames" and he still hangs with the chickens.
I've always been fascinated by the nature vs. nurture debate, whether it's an adopted child, siblings who are drastically different from each other or, especially, twins.
I've known step-siblings who are more like each other than blood siblings and I've known twins who couldn't be more different from each other.
On the other hand, I've known twins, both identical and fraternal, who are the epitome of "two peas in a pod," who breathe the same way, complain about the same things and grow up to be equally successful.
And I've known brothers and sisters who don't appear to be related at all, even though they were raised in the same house, with the same parents and the same rules.
Is a kid a sweetheart because of genes or because he was raised by sweetheart parents? And if that kid's a sweetheart, why is his sister a terror?
Is the duck behaving like a chicken because that's who paid attention to him when he was little? Did he never catch on that the other things that walk like a duck and quack like a duck might be related to him somehow?
It appears to have been a smooth survival move, to tell the truth. Thames' own mother didn't even sit on her eggs, much less show any inclination to raising a duckling. The chickens, on the other hand, were great about chipping in to make sure a clumsy, huge and none-too-bright baby made it to adulthood.
I can't help but wonder what would happen if I'd brought the duckling into the house to raise it or stuck my own kid in the barn when he was a baby and let the chickens raise him.
Jodee Taylor can be reached at 933-1511 or by e-mailing jtaylor@record-eagle.com.
