Living Eggs

Early on a Monday morning, Jo from Living Eggs delivered hens eggs, an incubator and a brooder.  We carefully placed the eggs into the incubator and turned the heater on.  The incubator heat was set at 37.7 degrees celcius, just the right temperature to keep the eggs warm enough for chicks to hatch.  Over the next 3 days children, parents and teachers were fascinated as they watched chicks hatch out of the eggs.  When they began to hatch we could hear the chicks chirping inside the egg.  Then came a tapping sound from inside the egg.  That was the chick's beak tapping on the shell to crack open, this is called pipping.  When a chick hatches, it needs to stay in the warm incubator to dry it's feathers as they are wet when they are born.
Once the chick's feathers are dry after hatching, they can then be moved into the brooder.  This is a bigger box with a light bulb as a heater, water and feed.  The chicks sleep under the light bulb to keep warm.  Every day the brooder is cleaned.  We replenish the newspaper, sawdust, water and feed.
Every day we could see the chicks growing, getting bigger and getting louder as they chirped for food.
The children named the chicks - 'Wriggly, Pop & Hop, Fight, Ruby, Walkie and Popsicle'.
Some children were keen to hold the chicks, a very special moment.
We incorporated games, stories and art activities during this special time.  A wonderful learning experience for everyone.