Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Ultimate Science Experiment

As part of a new, ultimate science experiment we are hatching some chicken eggs. Well, attempting to hatch anyhow. We've built our own incubator, the kids are watching the temperature and humidity levels, we're rotating the little eggs. Honestly, this round I don't expect a high survival rate - if for no other reason than we have NO idea what we're doing - hence the experiment part. We have 2 different kinds of eggs: 18 Bantams and 12 Silkies. I figured we would start super small with my expected non survival rate.

We are currently on day 2, so somewhere around Valentines Day or a little after or before we *may* have some hatching.. It's sort of primitive looking, but it'll work for after they hatch too - assuming we get any hatched. The kids are excited to look into the eggs each day with a bright flashlight and see if any changes can be noticed so far we've compared the dark blob inside these with the lack of one inside regular eating chicken eggs. These, even though they are smaller, appear to be heavier - we don't have a scale that small - and the kids have read about 3 books each about chickens and how to take care of them and what to do next.

Hopefully, they will continue to be as interested as they are now, but what better way to learn how cells divide, and grow, and all those things!