Zoology Class Is Hatching Ducklings!

Bright and early this morning, Chair of the Science Department Laura Hajdukiewicz fired off an exclamation-mark-filled email to the entire student and adult community at Brooks. “...our duck eggs are HATCHING!” she wrote. “We have two baby ducklings as of this morning and ten more eggs to go!”

The science teacher isn’t raising fowl in her backyard on campus. She’s spearheading a special project for her “Animal Behavior and Zoology” class that is studying birds as part of an animal taxonomy unit, which will also be a resource for her AP Psychology class coursework: hatching duck eggs in her classroom and livestreaming their incubation for students to see and study firsthand, 24-7.

“Once I was able to secure a home for the ducks after they’re hatched and older, I discussed the project with students, and of course, they were on board,” she says.

Enter an incubator, 12 duck eggs and a plan to rehome the animals 100 miles away at a farm in New Hampshire owned by the family of AP Psychology student Drew Hemenway '26.

“I asked if anyone had a farm and he offered to take them,” Hajdukiewicz said of developing her plan, which included tasking students with setting up the “Duckling Cam” to livestream the eggs’ evolution from her classroom on the first floor of the Science Building. “He cleared it with his family and they are set to take the ducklings once Drew graduates.” 

Watch Brooks’ “Duckling Cam”

The 10 zoology students are divided into groups, each responsible for different parts of the project, including:

• The incubator: researching it, putting it together and learning how to maintain the optimum temperature and humidity for the eggs.
• The hatching: learning what conditions duck eggs specifically need, how long the process will take and “candling,” when you shine a light through the egg to see if it’s developing properly.
• The ”brooder:” setting up this structure that the baby ducklings go into while they get older, complete with a warmer, water and food. (This group also researched the food and care that baby ducklings need to survive).
• The camera: establishing and managing the “Duckling Cam” YouTube livestream to broadcast the hatching process and show the baby ducklings in the brooder.

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AP Psychology students will also get in on the fun as part of their learning unit about imprinting, the process in which young animals bond with their caretaker and follow them.

“Ducklings imprint on the first moving object they see, usually the mother, within a 12- to 36-hour ‘sensitive period’ after hatching,” said Hajdukiewicz. “This rapid bonding ensures survival by creating a permanent, instinctual attachment to follow that caregiver. If a human is the first moving thing they see, they may view them as their parent.”

So, yes, these ducks will imprint on the students in her classes and follow them!

“This is why we won’t be able to release the ducks into the wild and they will need to go to a farm or protected environment where they can continue to have some human contact,” said the teacher.

“Imprinting is an instinct that is studied in both Zoology and AP Psychology so the ducklings will be a part of both classes,” Hajdukiewicz explained. “And it will be a really fun way to end the year for two classes composed primarily of soon-to-be graduates.”