Login
Home
May
Calendar
Contact

Chick Watch 2025

Chick Watch 2025
 
For updates on our 'Living Eggs' project, please see our diary below.
Day 1:
We were very excited to see the arrival of our 'Living Eggs' this morning and after seeing them safely installed, we enjoyed spending some time learning how to look after them. 
We now know that before hatching they must be kept in a special home called an 'incubator' to help keep them warm and safe. It is important that we don't touch the incubator, keep the water in the bottom of the incubator topped up and make sure it stays at a steady temperature of 37.7 degrees.
When the chicks hatch out, we have to hold them gently too to make sure they don't get hurt.
We have set up a special 'Chick Watch' corner in our classroom to keep an eye on the eggs and keep them safe and created our own special 'chick bunting' to remind all visitors about the rules of looking after our eggs and chicks.
Day 2:
Our first chick has hatched overnight! He is still a little tired from all the hard work breaking out of his shell, but is starting to dry out and gather strength. He is also chirping loudly to say hello and try and encourage some more chicks to hatch. We hope to see them soon! 
 
Amazingly, our second chick hatched out just as the children were arriving at school! He had a rest inside his shell half-way through hatching, but was soon keen to get out and start standing as well too!
 
Throughout the day the children were very careful to keep an eye on our incubator whilst ensuring they didn't touch it. Everyone was fascinated to watch the chicks gain strength from the morning to the afternoon and had fun documenting what they observed through craft work, paintings, constructions and diary writing. 
 
2:00pm
Two more eggs suddenly cracked open this afternoon, so the number of chicks has now doubled!! 
As the children were leaving we spotted signs of another chick 'pipping' (starting to crack out of its egg with its egg tooth on its beak). We have learnt that the chicks need to stay in the incubator for about 24 hours to help them to dry out their feathers and gain strength so they will all stay in there overnight. They don't need feeding as they have filled themselves with lots of yolk from inside the egg before hatching and enjoy pecking any last bits off the empty egg shells if they're hungry. To keep the air warm and moist however we have to check there is water in the trays underneath the grill where the eggs and chicks are standing.
 
Chick number 5 then hatched out fully at about 4pm!
 
Before Mrs Clarke left there was yet another egg which had started to crack - Look carefully at the photo and video below to see if you can spot the chick whilst still inside the egg!!
 
We can't wait to see what will happen tomorrow!
Day 3:
There was lots of activity overnight so everyone was excited to see 9 chicks in total waiting to greet them this morning! In just a short amount of time we've seen a lot of change already, so by halfway through the morning it was easy to spot the oldest two chicks as they had already started to form tiny feathers on their wings. At lunchtime we moved them into a new home, the brooder, which has more space with a light at one end (to keep them warm) and food and water at the other end. It took them a little while to get used to their new surroundings but they were soon busy exploring and even jumped into their food bowl to get a bite to eat!!
At the end of the day the rest of their brothers and sisters were looking dry and strong, so they have now moved into the brooder too. We have just one egg remaining which has been left in the incubator. Unfortunately if it has not hatched by Friday it is unlikely to hatch (not all eggs do) but there is still time, so we will wait and see!