Homeschool science project!

[herwitsend]

Putting 52 eggs in 2 incubators tomorrow! We have a Little Giant and my daughter and I built a styrofoam cooler incubator. We are going to see what method has the better hatch rate. We also have half hatchery eggs and half are from our own flock. I am so excited!! This is our first time hatching our own eggs. Oh and the hatchery threw in 3 extra eggs... Lavender Orpingtons!!

I may panic a little if they *all* hatch.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Wow, good luck on your two incubators. I'd love to follow your thread about how the 2 hatches go.

I talked my DH into letting my son and me try to hatch eggs. He's studying flying creatures in Zoology this year so I was hoping that would "justify" this experiment. We wouldn't mind having a few more chickens anyway. I ordered a dozen silkie eggs and the breeder sent 16 to cover infertile or cracked eggs. Out of the 16, 4 were clear and 1 got broken!

(Although that was "educational" too since we were able to study a Day 4 embryo.

We have 11 developing chicks in the bator on Day 12............It is so exciting. I know how you feel about having too many chickens if they all hatch. Maybe we could sell the extra chicks? Then again, maybe not!

 

[herwitsend]

My Pet Chicken has free shipping for educators (homeschool counts)! You don't get to choose your breeds, but we got a lovely mix. Studying the embryo would be AWESOME! We dissected a bird our cat killed and that was really fun.

I think I am going to blog the project, so I will post our updates!

 

[CALI CHICK]

A blog would be wonderful! I will definitely subscribe. Someday I would love to build my own incubator. For now I'm borrowing 2 from 2 different friends and just hoping for a good first hatch. It is really hard to keep from candling the eggs, especially when you see eyes, feet or any movement. Maybe I should have borrowed eggs or bought some cheap eggs for our first time -so I wouldn't be so anxious about the process. But really it has been an all around super experience....so far. If these little babies hatch, I'm going to be hooked and will have to build my own bator!

My son is only 10 years old. When we butchered our meat chickens, he could hardly watch, though. He did take pictures or videos, but then he would run back in the house. I wouldn't be able to kill a chicken (my husband did), but once we took off the feathers, it was very interesting. At this point, I actually took the knife away from my DH because it just seemed like Culinary 101 with a bit of Anatomy 101 mixed together.

You didn't let you cat eat her kill? LOL I should have thought of doing that the other day when I caught a bird in a mouse trap. I just felt so bad that I threw the whole thing away. Your eggs will start hatching March 1. I can't wait to read your comparisons, observations and see pictures.

 

[Fly Be Free]

Our 9 year old son and I just set eggs on Monday. I had a couple of bantams that I put in on Sunday and today we candeled and saw veins.

While I'd love to do a disection of an already dead bird my son would retch all over me..... and that would be at the mere idea. LOL

Have fun. I look forward to your progress reports!

 

[littlecreekfarm]

I'm homeschooled and I live in VA! I do a lot of science projects on the farm too. Good luck!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

Sounds like a great experiment! You can always sell the extra chicks, and that could be a bit of entrepreneurship as well.

BTW - Hello from Virgina, herwitsend, and

 

[herwitsend]

http://herwitsend.blogspot.com/2012/02/homeschool-science-is-cool.html

I blogged our experience so far. Look for more posts soon!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Your blog looks great and I'm impressed with the simplicity of your homemade incubator...I might even be able to do that-hehe! (You've got to love duct-tape!)

I do have a question about the experiment. Did you split your shipped eggs and farm eggs into both the Little Giant and the homemade bator?

 

[LaynaDon95]

My Pet Chicken has free shipping for educators (homeschool counts)! You don't get to choose your breeds, but we got a lovely mix. Studying the embryo would be AWESOME! We dissected a bird our cat killed and that was really fun.

I think I am going to blog the project, so I will post our updates!

How do you get the free shipping?? My mom could order for me seeing as she homeschools. The problem we've had with ordering is the shipping is so darn expensive!

I, sadly, got to study an embryo. Through my tears of course. =P It's very sad when you break a developing egg!