Well I finally have some time to let you guys know how our trip went.
We ended up putting the ducks in a nylon pop up dog crate. 25$ at walmart...it was the best thing ever. The ducks ended up traveling in our trunk. The smell was just too horrible.
It was nice and dark and that way they didnt have to deal with the prying eyes of our two cats that also went along for the ride. I Made a trip to the school on our way out of town and got the ducks in the car. Once they were in, they relaxed immidately. I was surprised they didnt seem to mind it. I did not give them food the morning we left but gave them a lot of water before we got in the car. I also took the advice of a BYCer and soaked two iceberg lettuce in water over night. We left about 3 in the afternoon and headed out. We hit some traffic on our way out of texas and I got a little worried about the exhaust all around us...so when we got out of the traffic we pulled over and opened the trunk to make sure it got aired out. Im pretty sure our trunk was air tight as it opened to the backseat when you put down the seats but I just wanted to make sure. About 4 hours in, we pulled over in Oaklahoma and gave them half of the head of lettuce. They liked that and were happily chattering as they ate. They didnt seem to mind the car one bit. The only time I hear a peep out of them, other than when we were checking on them, was when some truckdriver in oaklahoma decided to take an exit ramp at 10 mph and everyone had to slam on their brakes. When we hit the brakes i heard a very loud squak as if to say what lol. Other than that, they were quiet the whole time. When we got to kansas, I apparently hit the wrong button on our GPS and it made us take a detour. A 12 hour ride quickly turned into 14 with that awful detour through the darkest loneliest road in kansas. We finally arrived in Colorado at my boyfriends house around 4 am...and thats with the time difference...really it was 5 our time. 14 hours total from fort worth texas to aurora colorado. We stopped for a few hours in aurora. We had to leave the ducks in the trunk...we slept for 3 hours and left for my parents house at 8 am. When we finally got to my parents house, i got to see what my parents built for my duckies. It was better than I could have hoped for. They sectioned off a part of the alpaca barn (my parents raise alpacas) and that is where the ducks stayed overnight. the next day my dad took me to go pick up a rubbermaid storage container that he had bought off of craigs list. it is fantastic. he just plopped that in pen that was sectioned off and filled it with hay. The ducks were a little unsure at first, but soon figured out that it wasnt so scary, and that it was their safe place. Later that day, I took them on a walk to go visit the rest of the ranch inhabitants. This includes 5 cats 3 dogs and 12 alpacas. The cats wanted nothing to do with the ducks. YAY for that. They ran away as fast as they could. The alpacas for the most part were just kind of curious...looked but kept their distance. All except for our baby Kuzco (born in september). He wanted to play with the ducks so badly. The ducks would have none of that...they quacked so loud and got themselves backed into a corner which Kuzco thought was even better! My mom had to take the baby away while I herded the ducks, with the lure of peas, back to their barn. The dogs were really good too. Our old dog, just wanted to sniff and walked away. We have a little jackrussle who wanted to play with them. He kept trying to get the ducks to chase him, but that wasnt going to happen. Our other dog is the one i was worried about. Hes an australian shepherd blue healer mix. And he loves to herd the alpcas. Hes very well behaved and will stop on a dime when asked to. He just ran back and forth keeping the ducks together. which ducks being ducks...really wasnt a problem. I think they are going to enjoy their new home very much. My mom thinks they are so funny and is already talking about adding some runner ducklings in the spring. Last night is started snowing and we had about 3 or 4 inches this morning. I was so excited to take the ducks out to see how they liked the snow. Right away they were eating it and plopping down in and making cute little webbed foot prints in the snow. Then i noticed my mallard baby was holding one foot up and limping on it and hopping with it tucked underneath her...I had to pick her up to make sure she was alright...foot looked fine but she continued to limp on it. I was a little worried and figured I would come back later to make sure she was ok. After about 25 min or so the ducks had had enough and waddled back to the barn all by themselves (who says ducks are dumb.) I was wondering when they were going to find it. We made it three days without them finding it but they found it...what is it you ask...The pile of alpaca poo.
Perfect pellet size pieces that fit right in the ducks mouths...i had shoo them out of it...yucky ducks! I finally got them all back into their pen and gave them a little food and water. Right away my little baby mallard had her feet in the water...after two minutes she was fine and was walking around like normal...the little drama queen had cold feet. She apparently does not like the snow. Shes been my drama baby from day one...so funny. So here they are in their new home in the mountains of colorado. Their pen is 5 times the size my brooder/pen was in my classroom bathroom. They have loads of room to free range once they get used to their new home, and a huge 100+gallon kiddie pool they can dive and swim in. They are going to be so happy here. I'm sorry this is a little lengthy, but I thought id share how the trip went for the little fluffy butts. I have pictures but I left my camera cord at home so they will have to wait til we get back to texas after the 1st. Sorry.
It really was a lot better trip than I could have hoped for. No plot of revenge for the baby socks, no massive amounts of quacking...just some classroom ducks chilling out on the way to their forever home.
We ended up putting the ducks in a nylon pop up dog crate. 25$ at walmart...it was the best thing ever. The ducks ended up traveling in our trunk. The smell was just too horrible.
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