My 14 year old son is in FFA this year and they need to come up with an agricultural science project. He had the idea of putting about 10 or 11 eggs in the incubator, and letting them go. He planned to take an egg out every couple days, mark how many days it was and then put it in the fridge. He planned to have the last egg hatch right about the time his project was due, so he could have a live chick. He then planned to open the other 10 eggs and put them in small plastic cups, and show the development of a chick embryo from start to finish. He also would have a lab microscope so people could see the development on a microscopic level. I think it would be a neat learning project. I am just wondering if some people would be upset about stopping incubation of a growing egg, and seeing a mostly developed chick in a cup. I told him to check with his teacher, and if he O.K.s it, then to go ahead and do it. I think it is a project that he can really learn something from.
Don't know how long they would last before they became "yukky". My son did a similar project for 4-H, but did the incubation process in pictures. He may want to document the eggs with a camera instead of the actual eggs and then have a live chick. Might not be as shocking to non chicken people.
if he wants to do this he should add a few eggs each day, date the eggs and then when the first ones hatch he can open and display the whole thing. in other words start them a day apart rather than take them out early. be sure that you have good quality eggs and start several each day so that any quitters will not wreck your sequence. Jerry
