Science Fair

[Gammies chics]

Hello, I go by Gammies chics since my son (grandson) is doing a project for Science Fair involving baby chicks. We borrowed a large, metal tub,a heat lamp to house the 4 chicks we purchased. His hypothesis is trying to prove that feeding chicks their regular feed plus fruits and vegetables as a supplement will enable them to grow bigger, faster.
His plan is to feed all the chicks just chick feed for the first 2 weeks, measuring and recording their weight daily. Beginning the 3rd week, introducing fruits and vegetables to their diet and continuing to measure and record weights daily. Do you think this will enable him to have a successful project?
At the end of the project, we will be donating the chicks to one of our friends who already have chickens.

 

[Gammies chics]

Thank you everyone for your input.

 

[jolenesdad]

I don’t know how in depth he needs to go, but he would need to separate the 4 birds into two groups of two... continue feeding one group just chick feed and the others feed plus fruits and vegetables to show any differences....

Have fun!!!

 

[KikiLeigh02]

He would definitely need to make a control group! Continuing to feed two just chick food would be perfect! Make sure to offer the chicks grit when you add fruits and vegetables. Did you get all four chicks of the same breed and gender (hopefully)?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal communi!

Good luck and have FUN with the science project!

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Like they said already, split them up. Just changing diets on the same chicks wouldn't give you concrete evidence as the growth of age varies in different stages of a chicken's life..... or human for that matter.

 

[Gammies chics]

Hello again everyone,
Sorry for falling off the chicken coop, not to be heard from again til now, but it's been a busy month, raising chicks! Our Science Fair project is coming to an end and our little (not so little, anymore) chicks will be going to their new home with lots of friends, on the weekend!
Thought I would at least send an update as to what we found.

We started by separating both sets of chicks (Cinnamon Queen, (?) Bantam) with one of each breed in the 2 separate containers. One group just ate Chick food, the others got Chick food, plus fruits, vegetables, leftovers, etc.
In the beginning they were really not gaining at all, then a month later, the 2 Cinnamon Queens started gaining at the same rate, regardless of what they consumed on a daily basis. This pretty much continued for the whole experiment, thus disproving our hypothesis that by feeding chicks food plus supplements they will grow faster.

It was fun(sort of), but I am glad it's over. Hopefully I am successful to show some pictures. They really are very pretty!
Thanks for all your input, but next year we're using inanimate objects!

Sincerely,

Gammie's chics

 

[aart]

Sounds like a viable experiment...if you already know how to take care of chicks.
Heating can be tricky.....and you will need to separate, so may need 2 heat sources also.

 

[Rlmp817]

Welcome!
Have fun with your project!
We would love to see pictures & results too!