At one time we lived near Babbitt, MN in the country and my dad, having grown up on a farm, wanted to have some animals of one kind or another.

One day Dad was coming through Tower, MN and saw a sign in front of the hardware store (CHICKENS FOR SALE). He came home that day with 12 bantams. He had an old fish house behind the garage, and we fixed it up for the new brood with some perches and nests! 

We had a light in that coop but we were hit with a cold blast that winter and one of the hens froze her toes off. My dad felt bad and he did all he could think of to help her. He built her a nest close to the floor with a couple of steps and made her a food and water dish of her own hooked to her nest! 

Well Stubbs, as we now called her, survived the winter but she was the only hen that didn’t have any eggs so she would sit on the other hens eggs every chance she could get and of course she would get chased off all the time!

We were doing yard work one day and a friend of our family drove in the yard! He hollered at Dad, “Albert come over here I have something for you.”

We all walked over and Eldon got his old lunch box out and put it on the hood of his car. He opened it carefully, unwrapped a white cloth and inside were six little eggs! Eldon had just got off work at the mine and during the day he saw a mallard hen lying in the road. Someone had run over her and he had seen her every day for a week! Eldon figured she may have a nest since there was a small pond close to where she was, so he looked around for a bit and he found that nest. Eldon took his tee shirt off and put those eggs in it and wrapped them up in his lunch box. He had an old thermos in the top that was warm, and he brought them home to our house since he knew Dad had chickens!

Dad took the eggs over to the chicken coop and Stubbs was just outside. As he went in and placed the eggs in her nest, she came in to see what was going on and then spotted those eggs in her nest! She got in and made some funny noises and was looking at them and touching them. This brought some of the other hens who were clucking and looking, but soon walked away. She wasn’t stealing their eggs!!! Finally, she sat down, they were hers even if they were different looking! About a week later Dad was curious about those eggs, so he went to check on them. He went to lift her a little and she pecked the daylights out of him. About a week later we heard her making a ruckus, so Dad said, “go see what’s going on”, so I checked!

I was watching her and didn’t see anything, but then I saw a little bill sticking out from under Stubbs. They were hatching! Dad told me to go get Ma so she could see this! 

It wasn’t long before those little ducks wanted out of that coop and Dad knew they would need water. He had an old electric fry pan that didn’t work so he buried it ground level so they could swim, and they did. They loved it! Stubbs almost lost her mind because chickens don’t swim. She was trying to fish them out, but they just ran back in! Finally Stubbs joined them, and the other chickens thought she was nuts!

Dad soon had to get a kids swimming pool and it suited them as they were growing fast. They loved chicken feed and they can eat fast POOR CHICKENS.

Dad would empty his minnow bucket from time to time just to give them a treat and sport! When Dad would drag our driveway with a railroad iron the ducks would line up behind the drag and eat all the worms that he would turn up. That was funny to watch.

As fall was approaching, Dad would catch them watching the sky and hearing ducks overhead and one day they flew off. We were sad to see them go, but in the spring we looked outside and there were 3 ducks up by the chickens. Later they took off, but we were happy to see them again!

I don’t remember if we eventually ate Stubbs or not?

I’m just kidding how could you do that to a miracle mother!!