Baby Chicks!

Let's Learn About the Chicken Life Cycle

We've waited 20 days and can't wait for the chicks to hatch in our 2nd grade classroom!  Today we could hear the babies cheeping inside their shells!  There are 41 eggs inside the incubator and we can't wait to count the number of chicks that crack through their shells!  Tomorrow we will set up the brooding box, food supply, water and heat lamp.  Last year we tried to hatch 24 eggs and ended up with 18 chicks.  They hatched on the Sunday before we came back from Spring Break.  They came a couple of days early (maybe due to heat and humidity) and hatched while I was away shopping :(.  So, stay tuned and we will let you know what the next couple of days bring.  I almost feel like camping out at school over night so I don't miss anything!

If you look really close, you will see a heart on one side.  I put an x on the other side so I could tell if I had turned them.   They have to be turned twice a day.  Unfortunately, our automatic turner couldn't keep up with the large number of eggs this year.

Update 1: We had 10 chicks hatch on their own.  I ended up applying a moist paper towel to the last one that was going to hatch and he got "unstuck" from inside the egg. He struggled to get out on his own.  I believe there may have been a problem with the humidity.  I did have to unplug the incubator and take it home while on jury duty (lucky me!).  When I disposed of the eggs, I wished I had Tempelton (From Charlotte's Web) to carry them off for me.  Thankfully, it looked as if most of the eggs were never fertilized.  And, with it being cold out, I don't know how long the eggs were sitting outside before being incubated.  One child asked if we could eat the eggs that didn't hatch.  "Um, no!"  I'm just glad atleast one egg hatched for my class.  We had a couple of green eggs that gave us black chicks.  The others hatched yellow chicks.

Update 2: After several weeks of journaling and learning all about life cycles, my class had to say goodbye to the chicks today.  The chicks have been in their "classroom coop" for two weeks.  Now they need something a little larger.  This week the chicks really started trying to find their "pecking order."  They even pecked one of the largest chicks to the extent of bleeding while we were out of the classroom.  Once blood is drawn, they all pick on that same chick.  One of my students went over to the coop and scolded the other chicks.  It was pretty cute.  "Shame on you chicks.  Quit being bullies."  I did a little research and it said that applying cornstarch works.  It did help a little bit.  Glad they get a new home today.  One of my students said, "Can we take a picture of them in our head to remember them?"  Why yes, of course!