In October 2015, we undertook a very exciting project!
On the 23rd of September, 5th/6th class put sixteen hen eggs into an incubator in classroom 6. Ms Bennett had bought twelve fertilised eggs at the Portlaoise Poultry Fair the previous Sunday, and a generous grandfather donated four more. We weighed and marked the eggs at the outset. We made sure that the incubator was set to 37.5 degrees, and the eggs were turned everyday.
On the 23rd of September, 5th/6th class put sixteen hen eggs into an incubator in classroom 6. Ms Bennett had bought twelve fertilised eggs at the Portlaoise Poultry Fair the previous Sunday, and a generous grandfather donated four more. We weighed and marked the eggs at the outset. We made sure that the incubator was set to 37.5 degrees, and the eggs were turned everyday.
Seven days later, we candled the eggs for the first time. It was too bright to see much, but we did see some air sacs. We weighed the eggs again and were pleased that most had lost weight, as this is a good sign.
When we candled the eggs for the second time, we were delighted to find that ten had chicks in them. We were amazed to be able to clearly see veins in some of the eggs. Some brave girls broke and examined the empty eggs. From day 18 we added water to the incubator in order to raise the humidity to help the chicks to get out of the eggs successfully.
We had hoped the chicks might hatch on day 21 but by 3 o'clock only one egg had pipped. We could hear the chicks chirping in the eggs, so there was great excitement that something might be happening soon. Ms Bennett and Margo, along with a lot of children (and parents, siblings, cousins etc.) came back to school at 8 pm that night, but we were a bit disappointed that there were still no chicks, just three eggs with holes in them.
Next morning, Thursday October 15th, there was huge excitement when the incubator was opened to reveal three lively chicks. By 3 o'clock we had four chicks, and by 7 pm, when a big crowd of people came back to the school, we had two more. We moved the four oldest to a tub under an infra-red light in the prefab, and gave them a hard-boiled egg to get them started eating.
In total we ended up with nine very cute chicks under the infra-red light in the prefab. They provided
great entertainment and had plenty of visitors until they went to a happy home in Clonkeen on the day of the Hallow'een break!
great entertainment and had plenty of visitors until they went to a happy home in Clonkeen on the day of the Hallow'een break!
Here they are in December 2015: