‘She’s so sociable’ - Mum, 35 ‘best friends’ with duck she hatched from £2 egg from Morrisons

A 35-year-old mum has revealed how she became ‘best friends’ with a duck she hatched from an egg she bought from a supermarket last year. Chloe Greenwood, a former carewoker from Cornwall said she bought a six pack of free range eggs from Morrisons and put them in an incubator to ‘see what happened’ and 27 weeks later she ‘popped a duck.’

She had a hunch one egg might be fertilised - which proved to be correct when Buddy was born nine months ago. Chloe said she researched about the incubation process, how long it would take and what she would need to do if she needed to help her out the egg.

Now, Buddy the duck is ‘treated like one of the dogs’ and roams around the house and garden freely.

Chloe said: "She’s absolutely wonderful - she’s one of the family. We all love her so much.

“She’s so sociable. She goes to greet the postman every day and one of the loveliest things is when she stands on one leg with her head resting on the sofa and falls asleep.”

Chloe, mum to Aidan, 11, hatched Buddy in early September after buying £2 Clarence Court Braddock Whites eggs from her local Morrisons in August. She wanted to hatch one after she saw a similar video on social media, and friends bought her an incubator for a birthday.

Buddy learned her name within four months, and she taught Chloe ‘special quacks.’

Chloe said: "If she’s quacking really rapidly and bobbing her head that means she’s hungry, but if she’s doing a lower-pitched quack and stooping down she wants to go out."

The duck lived in a little plastic box with a heat mat for six weeks after she hatched and then slept in Chloe’s room. However, at four months she became noisy at night because she began nesting so Chloe popped her little bed just outside the door.

Chloe said: "When she was very little she followed me everywhere: if I got up to leave the room she’d be running so fast to keep up. It’s been the most incredible experience.”

However, Chloe admits that she’s been ‘put off’ supermarket eggs, because it would feel weird and wrong to eat them now.

Stonegate, the egg producer, said: “Our ducks are kept in small flocks with access to the outdoors every day. In this open-air environment, while it is infrequent, our ducks may attract the attention of wild drakes.

"So, whilst it is very unusual for males and females to come into contact with one another, it is not impossible.

"Fertilised eggs are completely harmless to eat and without incubation, would be totally indistinguishable from unfertilised eggs. Ultimately, with an egg that has travelled from our farm to the home via our packing centre, the supermarket depot and store network, it is a feat of remarkably slim odds that a duckling has been hatched. But we acknowledge that it’s not impossible."

National World has contacted Morrisons for a comment.