Hatch Week!

I took the eggs out of the automatic turner on Sunday morning and placed them flat on the mesh grid. The eggs need to remain flat for 3 days before the hatch process begins. The temperature and humidity levels are maintaining. Hopefully we should see some cracks appearing on the eggs by late Tuesday night or Wednesday!

Candling Video from 5-25

Video of Mrs. Birkholz Candling the Eggs

Photos

Week 3

Mrs. Birkholz and the kids candled the eggs today and we so HAPPY to observe development in 16 eggs! That is great news considering the temperature problem and now the high humidity level in our classroom. I guess the kids enthusiasm for the project is beating the odds! Thank goodness! Video footage from todays candling process will be loaded soon.

I am also so glad to see the followers of our story! Thanks for taking the time to read our posts and comments. Feel free to drop a line to us. The kids and I check the blog each day to see if anyone left us messages. We LOVE to receive mail!

Stay tuned...it should be a fun week ahead!

Week 2

Hello!
It's Monday May 17th and I came into school this morning and noticed that the temperature was quite high. It was at 104F, when it should be running at 99.5F. I informed the kids that this temperature reading was too high, and that it might be a factor in our success story. I did turn the temperature down immediately and it has been running at at a steady 99.5F all day long. I'm completely puzzled for the increase over the weekend.

Week 1 Progress

The eggs arrived at school on Tuesday from Sunnyside Hatchery in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Mrs. Birkholz helped the process by bringing in her incubator and getting the temperature stablized at 99.5F. I put the eggs in the incubator Tuesday night at 9:00pm. I was really hoping to put the eggs in the incubator when the kids were at school, but the FedEx man was running behind schedule. When the kids came to school on Wednesday morning they were so thrilled to see them in the incubator. In these three short days the chicks have developed their heart, blood vessels, brain and the tail bud. Each day the students are required to write about something they have learned either through our daily discussions or literature. It has been very fun thus far. Stay tuned for week 2 progress.

Preparation

This year the students and I began the chick hatch project on May 12. We put the eggs in our incubator and are patiently waiting for June 2, when they are to hatch.