THESE chickens must be being driven quackers by their new brood!When young Sam Ward spotted some abandoned ducks eggs he decided to give them a chance at life and took them home.

THESE chickens must be being driven quackers by their new brood!

When young Sam Ward spotted some abandoned ducks eggs he decided to give them a chance at life and took them home.

His two chickens called Boots and Socks took the little eggs under their wing and within a few weeks, out popped Huey, Dewey and Louie, named after Disney's Duck Tales characters.

Instead of swimming in a Suffolk stream the cute little bundles are trundling happily after their adoptive parents in the garden of the 11-year-old's house.

There is no pond but the family, who has a whole farmyard of pets, has improvised and the little ducks have their own exclusive swimming pool – in the form of a mixing bowl.

Sam's mum Lynn from Poplar Lane in Copdock said the Chantry High School pupil had spotted the eggs while out on walk with his grandad Brian Ward and his younger brother Toby aged eight.

They had been walking in the Washbrook area where his grandparents live.

Mrs Ward said: "There were about 16 of the eggs and they are very vulnerable to foxes and rats.

"We kept an eye on them for a couple of days and they kept disappearing so we took four of them to give them a chance at life.

"Since we did that all the rest have gone so we have saved their lives."

They picked up the eggs nearly a month ago but it was two days ago that the first cracks and pecks could be heard as the ducklings began to hatch out.

Mrs Ward said: "They are absolutely gorgeous.

"They are so tiny and only about two inches long."

At the moment they are being fed on pellets that the chickens eat, which have been put through a blender and crushed.

The family knows that when they are grown they will probably go swimming one day, over the hills and far away.

But it may only be au revoir rather than goodbye as according to Mrs Ward, ducks usually return to the place where they grew up.

And while they are in the Ward household there is no way they are going to be lonely.

They will be fitting in with the family's two cats, three Jack Russells, 13 rabbits, seven guinea pigs, three baby chicks and two goats.