Duck University - the syllabus (aka recap)

Everytime we think we got it down, the ducklings grow and we are back at square one (just like parenting children!!). 

 Here is a quick recap of the whole summer, followed by a bullet point list of what we learned.
 This list we just compiled over Christmas Break as our daughter is doing her science fair project on our "Duck Days of Summer". Cute, isn't it?

Recap by date:
- Beginning of May:  A fox ate Mama Duck and was carrying off her eggs one by one. We took the eggs inside to protect them with no knowledge of what was coming! - We candled an egg (held it up to a flashlight in a dark room to see inside) to determine how old they were. We did a lot of Google research. Is it weird we didn't even consider the library?
See related photos here

- May: We are taking care of 10 duck eggs in an incubator we found on Craigslist. They need to be kept humid and at just the right temperature: 99 degrees. They need to be turned daily. What did we get ourselves into??

- End of May: We can hear peeping coming from inside the eggs!  Listen on this video
- Within days they begin to "pip" (first signs of hatching). Over several days, 9 of the 10 eggs hatch.  This is the best learning experience for the children and the adults.  I had never seen a bird hatch from beginning to end before.  Usually when there is a display (like maybe at the fair) of eggs hatching, you only get to see a tiny bit of the process, since it can take hours.  Hatching videos
- Nine healthy ducklings move to the brooder (tricked out Rubbermaid container) in our dining room. They stay there for about a week. See related photos here

- June: Location, location, location! The ducklings move around our house a lot as we don't have a coop (and we don't know what we are doing). When they outgrow the brooder, I find a portable dog yard on Craigslist. It's not perfect. For a couple of weeks the ducklings are small enough to fit between the slats so it needs to be lined with newspaper on the bottom 18 inches. At different points they are out in our screened porch (but it is June, so the temperature rotates between too cold and too hot for ducklings), in our basement with quick access to the patio (too stinky!), and in our garage. The garage location lasted the longest. It provided relief from the smell, ease of cleaning and the most space for our growing ducklings in their dog pen. Should have started out there!

- The ducklings start growing in feathers.  For awhile they are part down, part feather - quite comical looking.  (They will all look like females until late in the summer when the males will finally get "Male" feathers.  Its a guessing game until then!)

- We cannot have 10 ducklings. We found several willing families to adopt 5 in total. One family took two, another took three (ducklings should not be adopted out alone - they will peep nonstop).

- June/July: Multiple daily outings to the backyard to swim in the elephant baby pool and walk around the yard. It is so fun to watch them swim and play! We set up an outdoor play area that is fenced in our elevated landscaping for them to hunt for bugs in.   They love it.  Unfortunately they cannot be left alone outside for fear of predators - fox, dogs and even big birds.

- We found out that ducks eat frogs - big ones even - whole.  While they were out foraging in the yard, one of the ducks caught one.  This was the first of many.  The kids like to catch the little frogs (we had an over abundance in our yard this year) for "duck treats".

- July: The ducks have started quacking - which is really funny.  Sounds just like a teenage boy with a changing voice.  They start to quack around 6 weeks old.
- One of our ducks got "angel wing".  It's a condition where one wing turns out funny and it will eventually prevent them from flying.  We have to bandage her wings up for a few days.  Not fun.

- We are fortunate to have a pond in our backyard.  I guess that is why we had eggs in the first place! We take the ducks down to the pond to see if they like it.  They are petrified.  They need to be literally tossed into the pond.  Within minutes they seem as if they will never return.  First order of business, harassing the locals.  Turns out our ducks are not socialized an become pond bullies in a group of four.  That won't be tolerated long!  Eventually they return.  They must, they can't fly yet and are vulnerable to predators still.
- The ducks are starting to do some pre-flight hops.  They are trying out their wings.  This timing makes me very nervous as they are too young to live out in the pond on their own, but are starting to want to escape - right before our vacation!
- We can no longer contain such messy ducks in the garage - they are too messy and it is too hot, even with access to a baby pool and a fan.  I found (through pure coincidence) a used duck coop nearby - for FREE.  We hurry to get it.  Needs a little love, but its not bad.  It has a couple of windows for ventilation, a lift open top for cleaning and a door.  We  put it in the backyard by the house and rig up the dog pen for an outside "run".  Days before our vacation.  They need either wood chips or wood shavings for bedding.  Cheap and easy to clean.
- We are very lucky to have found two willing neighbor girls who will feed, water and clean the ducks coop while we are gone.  Unfortunately, since they are just starting to learn to fly, we cannot have the girls let them out to swim while we are gone or they may disappear and that would be just too sad for our kids.  We just need to hold them off a few days until we return.  It is, of course, the hottest week of the summer.  Ducklings will have to make due with a rubbermaid container to swim in inside their pen.
- When we return from vacation, the ducks take the first opportunity to get out of the coop and explore.  They take full flight directly down to the pond and that is that.  About 9 weeks old.
- The ducks come back to hang out in the yard daily and eagerly eat the food I put out for them, but they never return to the coop.  They don't need the food I put out, they hunt well, I just enjoy seeing them come back.  And perhaps they are a little hungry for the familiar crushed corn.
- They now have lots of friends - about a dozen other ducks.

-August: The ducks continue to come up to the house each day for the food I put out for them.  I have to physically block all their friends from partaking.  (Hey, I'm only feeding the ducks I know!)  It's actually pretty comical.  The neighborhood children really enjoy seeing the ducks.
- We only see three of the four ducks consistently anymore.  We like to think the fourth duck went to live in a neighboring pond.

-September and beyond:
- Slowly but surely the ducks have totally assimilated into the local group.  We can still tell which ones we raised as they are willing to let us come near them, while the totally wild ones fly or swim quickly away.
- Eventually we only see two ducks that we raised... guess another found out about that neighboring pond.
- I am really hoping the ducks migrate - I hear its instinct, but still I worry about the little guys.  They are hear through the freeze - still walking on the ice to get to the open patch, but they are with their friends.  Hopefully they will teach them when it is time to go!
- We are certain the two ducks we still see are female.  The other two moved on before we ever knew, but I suspect they were female as well.
- By the time the pond fully freezes, there are no more ducks - and it froze really late this year.  December.
It will be fun to see if any familiar beaks return to lay eggs in the Spring!  We can only hope.

What a fantastic experience for our family, rescuing eggs and watching them grow into adult ducks!  I never fully quantify how much we learned.

Recap of things we learned (as compiled by my daughter, with help from Mom):  
- A Mallard duck can lay 10-14 eggs. 

·          - Eggs take about 28 days to hatch.

·          - Eggs need to be kept warm and moist.

·          - Eggs need to be turned everyday so the duckling doesn’t get stuck to one side of the egg as it grows.

·          - Soon before they hatch, you can hear them peeping inside the egg.

·          - When they first start to hatch, the beginning is called a “pip”.

·          - It can take many hours for a duckling to hatch.

·          - Ducklings and young ducks don’t quack – they peep.

·          - Young ducks don’t start to quack until they are about 6 weeks old.

·          - Ducklings have down, not feathers, so they can get very wet.  Only adult ducks with feathers can stay   dry in water.

·         - You cannot tell if ducklings are male or female until they are much older.  All ducklings and young ducks look like females until the male’s feathers change late in the summer.

·        - Ducklings and ducks DO NOT like to be alone. 

·        - Ducks sleep all piled together.

·        - Ducks always “follow the leader”.  If their leader is a person, they will follow them.  Or, they follow each other when they are older.

·        - Ducks are VERY curious.

·        - Ducks begin to learn to fly when they are 7 or 8 weeks old.

·        - When ducks are old enough to fly, they can live on their own.

·        - Ducks are omnivores – that means they eat plants (corn) and meat (fish, bugs and frogs). 

·        - Ducks can swallow big frogs whole.

·        - Ducks can dive and swim underwater. 

·        - Ducks are very fun, but very messy and they eat all the time.