But the experience was priceless!
Our kids had so much fun. They learned about egg embryology and function. They learned terms like: pip, peep, brooder, fertilized (which led to talks about reproduction), and humidity.
It took about 25 days for the duck eggs to incubate. This was the hard part because of my previous inexperience I was frequently checking the temperature and humidity in addition to "candling the eggs."
This was at 6 days into the incubation.
The kids weren't very "into" this stage because there wasn't a lot of action. Mason did like the candling some though because several times we could see them moving in there and a couple of times we even saw a foot stretching out or a beak moving. So cool!
The ducks incubated for about 25 days and we turned up the humidity and turned down the temp and waited... It didn't take long for the first little pips (tiny holes poked into the air sack of the egg for further air exchange while they prepared to break out). Then we could hear them peeping (chirping) from inside while they grew that last little bit.
This stage was tortuous because we had to be really patient and resist some very strong impulses to "help" them hatch...
After 3 days they began to pop out of their shells. We missed the first one (a black Swedish breed) by 45 minutes when we took Kaiah to gymnastics class.
And the second one (a Khaki Campbell) hatched in the middle of the night. I woke up to find that more were hatching, so I woke up the kids at 6 in the morning and they moved the first two into the brooder.
Aren't they adorable?
Number three (A Blue Swedish) was pretty fun.
#4 (Another Blue Swedish) was the most dramatic by far...
And we missed #5 (Another Black Swedish) in the middle of the next night.
But we were thrilled that all 5 made it!
We were sad there were no more hatchings to watch, but now came the fun part: caring for these crazy little birds!
The kids fed, watered and played with them and made helpful signs for them,
while I cleaned up after them... Three times a day I had to scoop out their little poop and any bedding from the brooder that got wet. And man did it get WET! Ducks are the cutest, messiest little things. They would put their little beaks in the water and flip it out, slurping and sloshing all over the place... I quickly realized that they needed a remodel. So I put a divider up between "the pool" and the sleeping/feeding area.
Right about the time they started looking over the edge of bin to see what we were doing, they started to really stink too.
So, I took the kids to a furniture store and got some huge boxes. I made a new, roomier home for them in the garage. This was about the time we started letting them roam around in the yard, eat grass and bugs, and SWIM!
We kept the ducks for about 2.5 weeks before bringing them to their new home at Mimi and Baba's house. Meanwhile we bought some fertilized chicken eggs and began incubating them.
Here is my partner in crime with her crew on the eve of the duck's departure.
When the day came to give them away, the kids did pretty well. We made sure that they were getting settled into their new home and played with them most of the day. Mason left them a parting message... Can you tell he was a little concerned with their safety?
Then he went to help Baba with his construction of the temporary duck shelter and brainstormed how to keep predators away...
When the ducks were 4 weeks old, we went back to visit. Look how much they grew!
For some perspective here is one at a few days...
Here it is at a few weeks...
and just one month later!
From left to right: Sunshine, Austin, Tangles, Blackberry, and Blueberry.
Such a fun adventure! Next up: Chickens!
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