Nature Features

A bit of a flap

Haider Hudda, 37 from Hall Green, runs a car parts firm in Hayfills. Several months ago, he received six duck eggs as a gift from a satisfied customer.

"It's a customer that we normally look after quite regularly," said Haider, known as 'H'. "One day he came in with six duck eggs and said: 'I've bought these for you so have them with my thanks'."

'H', by his own admission, 'forgot' about the gift - and put the eggs in the fridge at work where they stayed for seven days.

"A week later I took them home," he said. "My father put them in the fridge and forgot about them too. About a week later he took a couple out and tried them - and didn't like them.

In the Hudda garden

"He's got three or four chickens in a small coup in the the back garden. One of them was sitting on the eggs so he snuck the other four (duck eggs) from the fridge underneath the chicken. I don't know what he was thinking! Maybe on the off chance?

"Low and behold about three or four weeks later one of them hatched. I went home to find a little duckling in the kitchen!"

The animal, who's about ten weeks old and unnamed, now shares the Hudda residence with the family, pottering around the garden.