Science

In April the class received an incubator. Mrs. Barela acquired 18 eggs from her cousin, Wil Romero, and on April 20th we placed the eggs in the incubator. The eggs were turned 5 times a day for 18 days. On the 21st day we had two chicks hatch. It was exciting. We all went home that night hoping there would be more. Some eggs had pipped in the early morning of the 21st day, but the chicks did not appear, we feared they were dead. Since we had never tried this before, we needed more information. The following site was very helpful: http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/development.html

When Mrs. Barela arrived on the 22nd day, there were 5 chicks sitting in the incubator anxious to get out. Another chick hatched after lunch that same day and then two more while Mrs. Barela was at a meeting and then three more over night. Sadly, one of the last three chicks died by lunchtime of the 23rd day. No more chicks hatched after the 23rd day. We started with 18 eggs and ended up with 12 chicks, a 66% hatch rate! All the chicks are doing well.

 

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