Home At Last!

The chick, poult, and ducklings are spending their first night on the farm tonight! I delivered them to the Triple H farm after school today. Although I was a little sad to see them go, it was time. I'm sure I'll feel the same way next week when I say good-bye to the Kindergarteners for the summer!
Although we'll miss them, I am so happy for them to finally see the sky, smell the fresh air, and feel the earth under their feet! They joined a group of chicks, poults, and ducklings in a "nursery" of sorts on high ground to stay dry. There was a turkey hen there watching over her little brood of poults...hopefully she will adopt Pika and watch over him!

Going Home?

We had planned to take our flock to their new home at the Triple H farm this week as a class. Sadly, we have had to cancel our field trip because of flooding problems on their farm. Our flock will still go there, we're just not going to be able to take them together. RATS! I do have pictures of the farm, so the kids can see what the farm looks like.
These birda are ready to go. The ducks are growing right before our eyes and getting too big for their box. The chick and poult are flying in and out of their box too. This picture was taken last week as they stretched their legs and checked out the kindergarten room (as they often do after school).

Duckling Day

Last Wednesday we took the ducklings out and observed their body structures. We noticed small changes in their growth this week (like the beginnings of tail feathers), but mostly noticed some parts we didn't see before: the spur or "back toe" on their heels, the pink skin under their wings, and their nostrils! These kindergarteners are becoming careful observers of nature! We made drawings of them which we labeled. We turned these drawings into a book and sent the book along with the ducklings on a field trip to our friends at Russell Elementary school for the day on Thursday. We missed them, but know that we will see them again when they return next week!

Growing Up

We have been so lucky to have witnessed the birth of an animal and care for it through its first weeks of life. Charlie the chick is now 16 days old, and Pika the (turkey) poult is 11 days old. It is amazing how much they have changed in such a short time! Today we observed closely the body structures of both of these birds. We noticed their combs growing on their heads, their new wing and tail feathers, and their size. We observed closely and recorded what we saw by drawing our little friends. They also tried worms for the first time-yum!

Ducklings are here!

We have officially finished incubating eggs. However, there are other ways to aquire ducklings so there are now 2 sweet, little, fuzzy, yellow ducklings in our classroom. We prepared the space for them this morning and have provided the basics, but we will be consulting with some Kindergarten experts at Russell Elementary school in Mrs. Vaneps's class about pond habitats so that we can make a better home for them!

We had a very interesting discussion about how these ducklings are like our chick and how they are different. We also began to talk about why they have those differences. It led us to finally discover what the mystery bird is...a turkey!

Ducklings...where are you?

Our duck eggs are over-due. 4 days over-due. I am surprised because our brand new incubator kept perfect temperature and we kept the water reservoir filled. The turner worked properly and our mystery egg hatched inside this incubator. So, we needed to investigate. The small, digital incubator came with a scope to "candle" the eggs. Usually, you candle an egg early in it's development to see if the egg was fertilized, growing appropriately, etc. Our scope does the same thing without having to remove the egg from the incubator. I used this website to help us determine what stage our eggs were in. After looking at each egg, four of our eggs looked to be at 25 or more days and ready to hatch. So it remains a new mystery why our duck eggs have not hatched. I am worried that they never will.

Check out this interesting candling page-great pictures! (You may need to paste this address into your browser to use the link)

http://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm

Cutest Little Guy EVER!

I can't wait for the class to meet the newest chick. It is just about the sweetest little thing. It just wants to be held all the time and cries out when I put it in the box. It is very interested in the mirror and wants so badly to interact with the other bird!

Check out how perfectly this bird hatched. They "unzip" themselves around the larger "round" end of the egg where there head develops. Their legs develop in the pointy end.