In past years, the chicks have only been in the classroom for a week or so after they hatched, but Ms. Feaster decided that the kids should be able to watch as much development of the ducks as possible so she decided to keep them in the classroom as long as possible. At first, the cute ducks were in a medium-sized plastic bin since they were little and didn't need much room. Ms. Feaster became quite an expert on ducks quickly. Apparently ducks must have water available when they eat or they can choke. They also need to stay warm during the day and if they get wet or swim, they must be dried off. Their little duck mothers take care of them usually, but now the little ducks just have Ms. Feaster. On Friday afternoons, Ms. Feaster would lead the baby ducks into the playground to a little kiddy pool where the ducks would splash around and swim. All they 1st graders would watch and ducks and Olivia would come home with so many stories. She loved it so much and it was the highlight of her entire day! Olivia said that Ms. Feaster had to blow dry the ducks off or else they would get sick.
The ducks grew very quickly, it was amazing! Soon they were not fuzzy little yellow duckies, but started getting feathers and changing so much. No matter what they did, Olivia loved to tell me all about the ducks' day after school. Soon, the ducks were able to jump out of the plastic bin, so Ms. Feaster set up a cage that included puppy pads (A LOT of them) and a baby gate. They had a lot more room and were so happy. Olivia said Ms. Feaster would let the ducks out of their enclosure and they loved following her around the classroom, although they wouldn't go onto the carpet but would stay on the linoleum. It was perfect, since baby ducks go potty a lot!
Ms. Feaster would take the ducks home every night and weekend, which must have been a lot of work for her. She lives with her parents, so she set up an enclosure for the ducks in her garage. After the ducks were a little bigger and less delicate, she send an email out to parents offering the ducks for the weekend. Olivia was completely overjoyed and we emailed Ms. Feaster to let her know that we'd be available to take the ducks for a weekend.
So, this weekend I picked up five of the 11 ducks, since Ms. Feaster said all 11 were completely overwhelming. We borrowed two baby gates from Marco and Stacy and I bought a bag of 100 puppy pads for the weekend. We made a makeshift pen in the corner by the fireplace. The girls were so super excited and couldn't wait to get home to see the baby ducks. They both were great at taking care of the ducks, but Sofia was really amazing with them and somehow filled the "Ms. Feaster role" for the ducks. They followed her everywhere.
Once the girls got home from school, we decided to put them in our bath tub so they could get a little exercise. They LOVED it! Two of the ducks were great at swimming around quickly, ducking down into the water, splashing and obviously had a great time in the water. One of the ducks liked it, while two more seemed almost uncertain in the water. I ended up leaving them in the bath tub for about 45 minutes, while I straightened up the bathroom and took a shower. By the time I got out of the shower, the two ducks that didn't seem like great swimmers seemed to be almost sinking! I got them out of the tub and Sofia led them back to their duck pen.
The girls loved having the ducks and Sofia really took them on as their "duck mother" and would lead them outside to peck at the grass or swim in our pool. They really loved our pool and Ms. Feaster told us they had never been an anything bigger than a bathtub. They LOVED it! In fact, Sofia had to jump in to get them out! They really didn't want to leave and enjoyed splashing and swimming around. Apparently, young ducks need a lot of swimming and time in the water to build up the strength that they will need to survive in a lake in the wild. We gave the ducks cut up carrot tops, which they really loved and gobbled it up in seconds. They are really very interesting little animals to have for the weekend. That said, they also poop - A LOT! We changed the puppy pads often and ended up using all 100 puppy pads over the weekend! It was amazing. We couldn't imagine the mess all 11 of them would make! However, we kept their space extra clean since they were in our house, instead of in the garage. '
Over just the few days we had the ducklings, they grew so much! Their feathers became more pronounced from the fluff that they still had and instead of making their little R2D2 noises, they started to quack! The first day and a half they made funny noises that literally sounded like R2D2 from Star Wars but as soon as they found their quack, they got busy quacking! Once they started making their new noises, Buddy became very interested in them! He would go to their pen with every quack and the ducklings would hiss at him. We really tried to keep him away from the ducks, so they wouldn't become comfortable with a dog, since living in the wild will be hard enough for them!
I ended up taking the ducklings back to school on Tuesday around lunch time and all the kids were so excited and happy to have them back. They really were so much to have for the weekend and I'm SO impressed with Ms. Feaster and her dedication to raising the ducklings over the weeks! They are a lot of work and mess!
The plan was for Ms. Feaster to "release them into the wild" over Christmas break and planned to email her Feaster Firsties to see if anyone wanted to join in the release party, however, the ducks ended up going to a rescue center where they will live out their lives in safety. It would be great to be able to release them to the wild and visit, but they likely wouldn't have lasted a week! They really need a duck mom to teach them the ropes of living in the wild! Ms. Feaster said she plans to order 4-6 ducks eggs next year!
The ducklings enjoying the bathtub
Their poopy pen!
It gets messy quickly!
IN the hot tub....so they could swim yet were contained!
So cute
Time to sleep!
In the plastic container heading back to school. They grew so much in the few days we had them!
Can't believe how much we missed these guys after they were gone....
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