The duck has usurped the place of the chicken to become the most aspirational of the domestic fowl, beloved of celebrities such as the chef Gino D’Acampo (who posed topless with yellow ducklings perched on his chest in a memorable Insta post) and Carrie Johnson, who lately added a further three ducklings to the flock at her Oxfordshire manor house: Daff, Wally and Donny.
Luisa Zissman — a panellist on Big Brother’s Bit on the Side and LuAnna podcaster with her friend Anna Williamson — is duck guru to the celebs. She acquired her first ducks four years ago, when she moved to a house with a lake, and has since supplied Stacey Solomon’s hatchlings, Daisy and Delilah Solomon-Swash, described by the singer as her soulmates.
It was Zissman who provided Johnson with advice when Donny was sickly (sadly, he didn’t make it, RIP Donny). Zissman reckons she has about 33 pet ducks: “Cayuga ducks, Peking ducks, runner ducks and Aylesburys and crosses.” She says: ‘‘One is called Boris Johnson. He’s my favourite. I’ve got Nicki Minaj and Cocomelon. Rishi Sunak died, I’m afraid.”
Celebrity chef Gino D’Campo poses with ducklings on Instagram
@IAMGINODACAMPO/INSTAGRAM
She explains the love she feels for her web-footed wonders. “They are so intelligent. They come when I call them. They know I’m in the kitchen every day at eight o’clock and wait outside for their grain. When you are in the garden they follow you around in a line — that expression ‘ducks in a row’ is true.”
Despite their popularity, Zissman deplores ducks being considered a fashion accessory. “I have rescued so many ducks that people have hatched irresponsibly. They really need outdoor space to roam and explore, and access to a body of water. They shouldn’t be kept alone, either. I don’t want to encourage people to start keeping ducks as pets who aren’t able to care for them properly.”
So how did Donald gain such cachet? It’s partly down to the cheery demeanour and affectionate disposition of the average duck — owners compare them to dogs in temperament. They are friendly, photogenic clowns that inspire soppiness. Solomon FaceTimes her ducks when she is away. And because of the relentless perkiness and the adorable water-related antics pet ducks have taken to social media like — well I’ll think of a good simile in a moment … surely something will come to me …
Ten of Kirsty Shaw-Rayner’s 37 ducks
“Up until 12 weeks they are in front of the Aga and their surrogate parents are the pug, the bulldog and French bulldog,” says Kirsty Shaw-Rayner, who hatches her ducklings in an incubator then hand-rears them to live as part of her family in her farmhouse in Felsted, Essex.
“Ducks get imprinted, so when you are the first thing they see, they accept you as Mummy. I am official mummy duck,” she adds. Shaw-Rayner now has 37 ducks, a mix of Indian Runners and Khaki Campbells, including Uno, Whiskey, Spirit and Mr Grey.
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A publicist whose clients include Amir Khan, David Haye and Alfie Best, Shaw-Rayner says, “I have ducks in bed with me, ducks on my desk, ducks on the sofa. In the winter, there is always a duck in the kitchen in front of the Aga. In the evening, my husband sits on the sofa with his devoted dogs and I usually have a duck under each wing.”
Luisa Zissman with her ducks
Spirit, a half-wild half-Khaki Campbell, is her oldest duck, at six years. “He’s the general. Every morning when we let them out they troop the colour with Spirit at the front with his puffed-out chest.” She hasn’t a harsh word to say about any of her flock, except Mr Grey. The bone she has to pick with the Fifty Shades namesake is a general issue with drakes. Too many males in the group will become sexually aggressive and may harm the weaker females by “over mating”, Shaw-Rayner says. “There’s no etiquette. You have to keep the ratio of girls to boys right. You only need one boy to service six girls.”
She also advises owners to abandon hope that their duck will become house-trained. “Ducks poo more than any living animal I have ever known, and always at the wrong time. I’ve got stone floors throughout downstairs. You cannot have carpet. If you do have a duck in bed, put an old dog blanket down.”
Ducks appear to enjoy the company of humans, but they absolutely require the society of their own species, needing to be kept in a group of at least three. That is why anasaphiles up and down the country were saddened to read of the untimely death of Quackers of Mapperton House, west Dorset.
One of a trio of runners owned by Julie Montagu, Quackers is survived by Frances and Drake. “Everybody should get a pet duck,” says the American yoga teacher and freelance TV presenter, also known as Viscountess Hinchingbrooke. “Our ducks are the star attraction at Mapperton. They stick together like glue. They look out for each other. And they just tootle around together. There’s much more to them than chickens. They’re just really, really sweet.”
The Beaminster estate hit the headlines last month when Quackers was attacked by a terrier, then strangled and thrown in the bushes in the grounds of the house by the dog’s owner. Montagu has been sent the names of several suspects and received thousands of emails from amateur sleuths, but no longer expects to solve the murder.
Carrie Johnson has also posted pictures of her pet ducks online
@CARRIELBJOHNSON/INSTAGRAM
Still, she is a glass half full kind of viscountess. “I joke around that my husband and I — who have been running Mapperton for seven years — have done pretty much everything under the sun to try to get press to encourage visitors to come. And who knew that a strangled duck would do it for us? I mean, it’s not a good thing, in one sense. But since that happened, we’ve had an increase in visitor numbers. We’ve raised, I think, more than £5,000 now to create the Quackers Memorial Pond, which is part of our rewilding project. And it’s raised awareness for keeping dogs on a lead.” Ducks are a PR’s dream.
In a picturesque 600-year-old farmhouse a few miles from Rye, East Sussex, Genevieve Harris, known on social media as Mrs Trufflepig, began duck-keeping about six years ago. A voracious buyer of vintage finds, known for her “knick-knack chit-chats”, Harris is also an admirable source for soppy duck posts such as the latest: “What could be better than duck cuddles in a pretty frock?”
Genevieve Harris, known on social media as Mrs Trufflepig
She says: “We started with call ducks. They have such a big personality. They’re very loud, very chatty, especially the males. And then we took some rescues in. We had Appleyard ducks and Cayugas. The Cayugas are beautiful, black with the kind of green iridescence to them. And then now we’ve got two Aylesburys, which I really like because they are really good layers.”
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She bought her Aylesburys for about £12 apiece and says she spends £20 on seed each a month. “They get so much of their food from the garden. They’re really good at keeping slugs down and snails. But at the same time, they will eat your plants, especially young vegetables and leafy greens, so I’ve got mine in raised beds,” she says.
“Ducks are very sweet and quite loving with each other. I love to see their friendships.” Donna Ida Thornton, the Australian designer of denim clothing who is known as the Jean Queen, has been a duck devotee since she moved into in Langdon Court, Devon, in summer 2022, with husband, the chef Robert Walton. As well as call ducks and Aylesburys, her menagerie includes geese, guinea fowl and chihuahuas. Think: The Good Life but make it fashion.
Robert Walton and Donna Ida Thornton with their pets
ADRIAN SHERRATT FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Two years ago, one of her customers asked if she could give a home to some ducks from her children’s school. “They buy ducklings and they have them in a little incubator and they teach the kids about baby animals. But then when they got bigger, they were looking for a home for them. And we said, yes, absolutely. We’ll take the ducks.” Now the flock at Langdon Court numbers more than 50.
“When we were first doing works to the house, we had them in the Palm Court [the covered courtyard at the centre of the manor]. They had to stay out from under the builders’ feet and safe from foxes until they had their own house.” Now, blessed with a couple of generous ponds, a duck house from Flyte so Fancy and regular mealworms for dinner, she has noticed numbers climbing sharply. Forget chick magnet, Thornton is a duck magnet.
“When we put ours away at night, we’ve often got a few extra. It seems like we are collecting ducks. We had some neighbours saying to us that their ducks disappeared because they had all come down to our pond. The word has sort of got around that we have great food, company and accommodation.”
Her advice on duck ownership echoes her fellow aficionados: “Everyone should have a pet duck. We love ours. We’ll still pick them up and bring them in occasionally They’re very soft. You don’t think about cuddling a duck, but they feel fantastic.”
Poultry paperwork
Ruffling feathers up and down the country, new Defra rules on pet birds have come into force. They affect kept fowl from fancy hens to racing pigeons — and the posh poultry of the moment: ducks.
You must register as a keeper of fewer than 50 birds, including pets but excluding parrots and budgies. If you acquired your poultry before October 1, you must register immediately, and for those who acquire after October 1 you have 30 days in which to register ownership, gov.uk
