Indian Runner ducks are a breed of domestic duck that were found inhabiting the islands of Indonesia. Indian Runners are a very unusual breed of duck and dissimilar to most domestic ducks in many ways. As their name suggests, these ducks run instead of waddle and stand up straight unlike other domestic ducks. Indian Runner ducks also don’t create nests and incubate their eggs like other ducks, they simply drop their egg while they’re running and leave it to hatch by itself! They are the best layers of all duck breeds, producing about 300 eggs a year which are pale green/white in colour and are a great egg to use in baking and cooking due to their creamy texture.
Our Indian Runners are a very friendly bunch of ducks who you can often hear quacking away on the dam. They often travel together as a group and love checking out visitors who go for a walk around the dam. Whenever they hear us walking down the lane they come for a feed no matter if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner! A couple of these cheeky ducks will even eat their dinner out of our hand. You can meet our Indian Runner ducks at our Meet the Animal school holiday activity!
Runner ducks are known for keeping the nasty bugs away from vineyards and our runner ducks love to spend their day hunting for treats amongst our Pinot Noir vines but check out this runner duck parade: