I did keep mine in the classroom. I used shavings with rubber shelf liner on top for the first few days and then shavings. Ducklings are way messier than chicks (but cuter). They get water every where. I used smaller pans under the waterer and under the heat lamp filled with shavings to try to keep some dry space. After they were a few days old I would lay a large beach towel on the floor surrounded by boxes and let them spend the day running around in there. I also would add a small rubbermade shoebox filled with water as a pool with rocks for steps inside and out. Be cautious using school brown paper towels -they are a lot slicker than nice white Bounty. My students washed their hands before and after handling and we did not have any problems. I now have really tame ducks too.cheezenkwackers , Thanks for the advice! As a fellow teacher, I have a few questionsDid you keep the ducklings in the brooder in your class as well? I did this last year with chicks and it worked out fine, but we used newspaper to line the brooder. Unfortunately, a lot of things online say not use newspaper for ducks b/c it's slippery--however shavings seem like a huge mess/hard to clean in a classroom. Wondering what you did
I did keep mine in the classroom. I used shavings with rubber shelf liner on top for the first few days and then shavings. Ducklings are way messier than chicks (but cuter). They get water every where. I used smaller pans under the waterer and under the heat lamp filled with shavings to try to keep some dry space. After they were a few days old I would lay a large beach towel on the floor surrounded by boxes and let them spend the day running around in there. I also would add a small rubbermade shoebox filled with water as a pool with rocks for steps inside and out. Be cautious using school brown paper towels -they are a lot slicker than nice white Bounty. My students washed their hands before and after handling and we did not have any problems. I now have really tame ducks too.
