A couple who raised an orphaned duck was stunned when she resurfaced with 11 ducklings

A couple who hand-raised a day-old chick before releasing it into the wild was stunned when she returned to their home six months later — with 11 chicks.

Phil Garner, 67, from West Yorkshire, took the little mallard under his wing after finding her abandoned on a fishing lake, before returning her to his wife Julia Garner, 66, in his jacket pocket.

The ex-freight train driver said the bird, whom they named Freda, was partially potty trained after moving into their three-bed home in April 2021.

And the pair even took turns sleeping by the ‘demanding’ bird’s bed while feeding her a 40-pound diet of grubs until she fledged the nest last October.

But they were amazed when she showed up again on their doorstep in April with a male “friend” duck – whom they named Fred.

A few months later they saw her coming up the driveway with her newly hatched brood of ducklings, who have now taken up residence in their garden.

Phil said, “Going from one duckling to eleven was chaos. It was like, “What are you doing with this lot?” They are now eight inches long and as thick as butter – airy, very airy.

‘They have to swim, they have to wash. So we have tubs everywhere. The garden looks like a bomb site, but it doesn’t bother me.

“It was a bit sad when Freda first went, but at the same time it was a bit of a relief because she worked hard and was demanding. It was a double-edged sword.

“But in the back of my mind I expected her to come back because we were told they imprint you for life.”

Julia said her husband of 16 was undergoing painful treatment for bladder cancer when he first encountered Freda.

And she now considers the duck to be Phil’s “guardian angel” because during that difficult period he was able to focus his energies on caring for her.

She said, “I wasn’t too keen on my house becoming a duck sanctuary at first, but we’re all adapting.

“And that year, Phil underwent three surgeries for cancer and fifteen follow-ups. It’s been a tough time for him and in some ways Freda has helped him through it.

So she was like his guardian angel. I think she was sent for a purpose.’

Phil said he was fishing with his son close to their home in Allerton Bywater, near Leeds, on April 1, 2021, when the little duckling first came to them.

They spent hours trying to find her parents before the seven-year-old grandpa took her home after the fisheries manager said she would die if left in the wild.

Phil said, “It was freezing cold that day and there was no trace of the mother.

“The guy said, ‘If you leave her here, she’s going to die.’ So we brought her home and we thought, ‘What do you do with a day-old chick?’

Phil fed the chick back to full strength in the comfort of the warm house with Julia’s help – and let Freda roam their front room, kitchen and yard.

They also let her swim in a fiberglass pond they bought for goldfish – and it didn’t take long for her to bond with her rescuers.

Phil said, “She would either sleep in a box, at your feet, or under the coffee table.”

“But one of us had to sleep downstairs or she’d start screaming and crying. We potty trained her to use towels.

‘She would sit on my shoulder and on my table while I did my computer work. She was so loving.’

Phil said Freda suddenly left their home in the fall last year after spending a few weeks “screeching” at other ducks she could hear on a local lake.

And the couple believed it was the last they’d seen of her until she walked back into their driveway with her “boyfriend,” Fred, on April 3 this year.

Phil said the lovebirds spent a few months together before Freda suddenly disappeared, leaving her “lost” mate to fly away without her.

But two days later, she emerged from a neighbor’s lavender bush with a bunch of little ducklings, who now live in Phil and Julia’s yard.

Phil said, “We looked out the front window one morning and saw the little ducklings waddling towards us. Since then they have stopped here.

“We let them in the fish pond in the front yard, but we dug a separate pond in the back and feed them cornmeal, worms, maggots, and Weetabix.

“You hear them beep beep beep when they want to eat or when the mother is gone, but they’re pretty quiet.”

Phil expects the ducks to stay with them for a few more months, but is willing to rehome them in a nearby pond if they don’t go back into the wild.

He added, “We expect her to fly off and go back to where she was before, and the ducklings will just follow her and do their own thing.”

“If not, there’s a good fish pond near us with a fence around it to keep out the foxes.”