chickens for my classroom

[lifescienceTeacher]

I am looking for an incubator and some eggs for my life science class. I want to use the eggs as a lesson on cell development. I also want to expose my students to something most do not see. I teacher in a low income school in LA. I do not have very much for this project; so any ideas, suggestions, donations would be wonderful. Thank you so much.

 

[TeePants]

LA as in Louisiana? If you follow the guides on this website you could build your own incubator for ~$40! I live in Lafayette and I built mine. Also, I know there are a lot of farms around here that sell hatching eggs, a guy we spoke to out of Opelousas sells BCM eggs for $30 a dozen but you can get less than that.

If you want a more automated incubator, TSC in Opelousas sells Little Giants and Egg Turners for about $80 all told but you'd have to get a hygrometer and a thermometer to go in them as I heard the stock ones suck. Brinsea makes good small incubators, you just missed a sale for those unfortunately.

I guess it depends on where you live as to what your options are, but homemade will be cheaper but possibly less reliable and certainly less pretty.

 

[BairleaFarm]

go home made on the incubator. Let me know when your ready and ill send you eggs at no charge if its warm enough they are still laying.

 

[busyteacher]

I hatch eggs out each year with my first graders. Here in Texas we have county Agriculture Extension Agencies. Last year they were able to provide us with an incubator and eggs all for free. The incubator is just on lone, but you can sign up each year for a time to borrow it. Now the eggs you will want to be sure to get from somewhere else unless they can guarantee the type. I was told last year they would hatch into laying hens and I ended up with 22 stocky, fat 100% meat birds! Needless to say it was my first experience at butchering. All this to say that there could be resources around you that could help obtain something similar. If you have AG classes at your high school or a groups such as FFA ask some of them. FFA has a program for raising chickens so someone might be able to point you in the direction of an incubator. Also call around to farms that you know have chickens and see if they might be willing to donate some fertilized eggs to a good cause. That is my plan for this year so that I do not have to hatch out more meat birds!

 

[gmendoza]

Here is my homemade incubator,made from a 10 gallon aquarium (wallyworld brand)

And we got alot of diffrent chickens.I can and will be happy to send you some eggs frees-ville.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum!

Glad you joined us!

I thought everyone knew that LA was Lower Alabama.

A couple of thoughts. The county extension agent is a great idea. You should be able to find them in the phone book under county or parish government. Some agents are a lot better than others, but they should be able to tell you where to borrow an incubator and get eggs, maybe link you up with a hatching expert, possible provide a guest lecturer, and maybe even a teaching plan.

Another option is to find your state thread and post in there. You'll probably find you have neighbors with incubators, incubating experience, hatching eggs, and maybe a home for any that hatch and you don't have a home for. You do need a plan for those that hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=26

Good luck and once again,

 

[ki4got]

If you want to have the incubator for future hatches as well, I found that lllreptile.com seems to have the best prices on the still air incubator - Hova Bator 1602 is $35 plus shipping. and if you've got someone handy you can wire up a fan for it for next to nothing using an old cell phone charger and computer case fan. (i'm using 2 huge 12v fans in series, so they don't turn as fast but still move a ton of air). and i picked up my egg turner off ebay for $25.

I remember my 6th grade science class we did the egg thing but had some broody pigeons that lived in a flight in the room. it was quite interesting and fueled my love of birds.