We have Chicks!!

THE CHICKS

Cool! We have chicks that are the size of our hand.

They're fluffy like someones afro hair and they are cute .

They cheep a lot and they live in a barrel .

They've grown a lot since we've had them, Zane cleans out the barrel every two days.The chicks don't like you picking them up a lot because they get cold, there's a heat lamp at the top of the barrel.

We can't put too much water in there water bowl because they could drown, so we have put some stones in the bowl just incase.

We have five chicks three are brown and two are a light yellow. 

Army

Once upon a time there lived a boy called Jack. He had a mum with long blond hair and a dad with long blond nostril hair and a brother that looked just like him and a sister that looked like her mother. One day he decided to leave his lovely home and work at the Army. His dad worked there and he wanted to see his dad. Then another Army was attacking their base. The whole army got their guns like shot guns, BANG, slug guns, BANG, machine guns, BANG BANG, bazookas, BOOM, and twenty two's, BANG, twelve gage shot guns, BANG, twenty gage shot guns, BANG,  pistols PEOW, AK 47's, BOOM, rifles, BANG and snipers BOOM!  But Jacks dad got shot.
So Jack came home and his Grandad and Nana came back from Russia.
His  Grandad had brown long hairs escaping from his ears and his Nana has no teeth like gummy bear.
When something really loud happens she says, "i think someone is at the door". Especially when an aeroplane lands in their house.
When visitors come she says, " you smell like peanuts"  they say, "well you smell like old people" so Nana gives them a big hug and they all live happily ever after.

Zanes dad came and torched the eggs. Most of them died in the egg and some had grown but in the end they all died. This could have been because of the weather.
You can see in the picture below the egg is see through, this means that it was not fertile. The next picture shows an egg that had started to grow but because of the weather it died. The third picture you cannot see through the egg at all which means that there was a chicken in there.

Unfortunately the baby chick didn't make it out of the shell.  Mrs T-k took the shell off it after school and there was no room for it to move around is was too big for it's shell.

Moses

Moses

It is important that  before you put any eggs in a incubator that you have plugged the incubator in.You have to make sure that the temperature stays between 99.5 and 103 degrees . Chicks begin hatching on day 21. If all the eggs do not hatch by day 25 or day 26  remove the remaking eggs and discard them. If  you have children candling chicken eggs is a really fun way to actually show them the development  of the chicken within the egg . What is candling ? Well candling is a method  of seeing  exactly what is going on inside  an egg without actually waiting until the egg hatches. Candling an egg, the egg needs to be lifted up from it's place in the incubator. You need to hold the further most ends of the egg, only this way can light travel into the egg and back out the other side. You  can do this by holding an egg between your forefingers and thumb very carefully. When you shine your light threw the egg the egg you are checking for any signs blood, veins, dark masses and small swishing objects . These can be used with any kind of flash light, or just holding an egg very close to a light bulb or any kind of source of light . What will define a bad egg?well when looking for an egg that is fertile, the first thing you need to know is how to identify an infertile egg. Also known as a bad egg, or a dud in some trades.

This is what we saw as we left school today. 

Keep watching we think we will have a chick when we arrive in the morning, we will keep you updated!!

Getting ready

Mr Parker helped us set up our own small 'chicken coop' inside out classroom yesterday.
Once the eggs have hatched we will place the chicks into the 'coop' under a heat lamp. Inside, we have a small dish with stones and water (so they don't drown while drinking), another small dish for food and sawdust on the bottom.

Can you see it's beak?

Before Mrs T-K went home last night she saw a tiny crack in one of our eggs. (This is in the first picture).
Today when we arrived we can see the chicks beak poking out.

We have got our 'chicken coop' ready too!!

We are all very excited for the arrival of our chickens.

We took a video this morning take a look to see if you can see the chicks tiny beak.

Oxygen and Humidity

   Ventilation (oxygen)

Ventilation is very important during process.

While the embryo is in development, oxygen enters the egg through the shell. There is ventilation holes on both above the egg and below the egg.

           Humidity

The average chicken has thousands of pores running through the shell allowing the embryo to exchange oxygen, carbon dioxide and waters. Soon after the egg is laid, a small air bubble or “air cell” forms in the big end of the egg. The chick can drown if the air cell is to small.

Every night we have to check the trays at the bottom of the egg to make sure they have warm water in them to keep the humidity right for the eggs.

        

Temperature of the Incubator

Temperature

You should never trust the thermometer that comes with the incubator, always check it . You never know your incubator could go off by five degrees .  We need to make sure the incubator is always warm. That could mean life or

         DEATH!!! 

At night we put a thick towel over the top to keep it warm overnight while the heaters aren't going.    

Chicken Eggs

Three weeks ago Zane's Dad bought in 42 eggs to incubate. The next day we walked into the room and there was this stench!!! Mrs T-K looked at the eggs in the incubater and GROSS did it stink! One of the eggs were rotten! It had cracked!