A decorator who found a duck egg at work was stunned after it hatched – and the duckling that emerged now thinks he’s his MUM and follows him everywhere.
Dad-of-one Ian Lamble, 51, was working at a flour mill when he found the egg in an abandoned nest in a dusty corner.
The egg was among ten hatched eggs which had been left behind by a mother duck and her chicks.
Ian popped it on a heat pad and was the first person the young duck clapped eyes on when he emerged.
The duckling – called Pumpkin – immediately thought he was his mum and now follows Ian everywhere he goes.
Painter and decorator Ian, of Driffield, East Yorks., has now taken his surrogate child to his house and built the bird a special home.
The four-week-old duckling was discovered at Bradshaws Mil after his mother hatched ten eggs and left him behind.
Ian said: “The mother had ten eggs but she left one of them behind. All the eggs hatched out, apart from Pumpkin, and the nine of them followed the mum.
“Pumpkin may have been the only one left behind but he’s survived and is doing really well. He came home with me at not even a day old.”
Ian and his wife Annette, 52, a council worker, now live with Pumpkin at their home in nearby Wansford, where Ian has made a special pen.
And one of his priorities is putting plenty of paper down for the duckling which he describes as a “pooping machine.”
Ian has a couple of ponds in his garden where Pumpkin can practice being a duck for when he is eventually released into the wild at the canal.
Ian, a father-of-one who works as a painter at Bradshaws, a flour mill, added: “It’s adopted me as its surrogate mother. If I go into the garden he’ll follow me and if I go back into the house he’ll follow me back in.
“He follows me everywhere and is really adorable. Eventually he’ll fly off and he’s already getting his adult feathers.
“At the moment he squeaks instead of quacks. He has grown incredibly. He enjoys eating lettuce, sweetcorn, peas and chick-meal with water.”
Despite referring to Pumpkin as a “he” Ian still hasn’t been able to establish Pumpkin‘s gender.
