Growing Ducklings

According to my calendar, and my memory, my four Muscovy ducklings range in age from about 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 weeks.    I'm having a great time watching them grow and learning about these ducks  by observation.  The way their feathers come in is especially fascinating to me, as i watch them go from fuzzy, to spotted, to more solidly feathered.  I've also learned that these ducks definitely LOVE water, deeply LOATHE being handled by humans such as myself, and grow very very quickly.  Also, everyone who ever said that ducks are messy was telling the truth in understatement.  Chickens are clean freaks compared to these guys.  

Here are some cute pictures of them in their little pool, taken this morning.

They can't just drink water, they have to get in the water and then drink it.

They're very curious about "outside," but they haven't dared check it out yet.

 Here, you can see how big they are.  This "pool" is about 15 inches wide and about 3-4 inches deep.

 Here, the statuesque duckling on the right is showing us his/her developing chest feathers.  This is one of the younger ducklings, and he or she is on the way to having the solidly colored feathers like the duckling on the left.

 I was just telling my husband that the ducks were getting awfully big and would need to be moving soon.

And then this afternoon i noticed that the brooder was dark.  Upon investigation, i discovered that the heat lamp bulb had apparently exploded all over the brooder.  There is broken glass everywhere!

So i decided to start the process of integration with the chickens.  I put the ducklings in a large bird cage with cardboard and pine shavings on the bottom, in the chicken coop.  I hope this works.  And i hope they'll be warm enough.  They're pretty well feathered, and they cuddle well, and had to get them out of all that broken glass.