Quote Originally Posted by Sophist
I've had ducks before... I wouldn't reccomend pet store ducks. But I also wouldn't worry about them being imprinted on a mother duck, as I can pretty much promise you the first thing they saw was the roof of an incubator and tons of other ducklings packed in around them. Outside of the wild and maybe pet/small farm ducks, I don't know of any commercial producers letting poultry set and hatch their own eggs.

For sure, though, get at least a small flock and not a lone duckling. As far as sexing goes, I have had pretty good luck with Murray McMurray (I think that's how it is spelled) for when I was raising/breeding/showing purebred ducks. Otherwise, I was lucky enough to be able to wander down to a farm and pick up some cool mottled black and white mutt-ducks that were great pets. I didn't have a male duck then, and one of the ducks stole a chicken egg and hatched it and raised this HUGE black astralorp rooster as her duckling.... that was when I was a kid, though. I don't havy any ducks right now.
Thanks so much I was planning on have one, what would be wrong by having only one? Do they just get along better with a flock?