Forward Thinking

[Urban Chaos]

My son would like to use next years science fair as an excuse to hatch eggs. He will be in 6th grade and is strong in math and science . Any suggestions for potential "experiments"? We havnt purchased an incubator yet, but have been looking at the GQF Hova-Bator (holds 50 eggs). We would like to hatch out layers and are not overly concerned with breed (but his favorites are orpingtons and brahmas). We will be keeping some and have homes set up for any additional babies (and there is always craigslist). The rest is fairly up in the air at this point. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Glenmar]

I read on here where somone made a homade incubator as a school project, and selected some fertile eggs from the grocery store. Some of them hatched. It sounded like a good project.

 

[JerseyFresh]

My niece just did this. About the same age I think.
She did half cleaned and half dirty eggs and kept track temp/humidity as well as hatching results (with a divider she put in at lockdown). She made a large display of how an egg develops per day that I thought was very nice. The timing was perfect and there was a chick that hatched during the presentation. She had a lot of fun.

 

[Glenmar]

So cool. Hopefully one of my neices will want to try this when they get old enough.

 

[Urban Chaos]

Yes, I am thrilled with his wanting to do this! its the perfect reason to get an incubator. We were thinking of maybe trying to do something with guessing the # of chicks that are a particular color with mixed color parents....maybe the genetics peeps can help out.

 

[CCourson05]

what breeds do you have?

 

[tinydancer87]

track the development of the eggs, take pictures, etc.

Or do something with white vs brown eggs, clean vs dirty (Does cleanliness of eggs affect hatch percentage?)

Something with sexlinks and color...genetics....

more complicated...run 2 incubators, one slightly lower temp than the other (Do lower temperatures affect gender ratio?)

 

[joneus]

Quote:
I, for one, would LOVE to see this one done!

 

[Urban Chaos]

we were thinking about the lower temp. gender experiment, but I would hate to end up killing a batch of eggs. Its scary enough being a first time wanna-be-hatcher. The thought of messing up is terrifying. How low is too low of a temp? How high is too high? We may try a hatch this summer before school starts so that his project wont be a first time. Also, with the development stages...is over candling bad for the eggs?


And, the breeds we have now are (Hatchery stock) dominiques, EE's, light brahmas, and one lone leghorn mix (an Ideal cross - kinda like a tetra tint I think)


Victoria

 

[CCourson05]

In a still air, I would hatch at 102, and 98 at the top of the eggs.

In a fan... 101 and 97