Omelet

During Erin's birthday dinner Omelet arrived (Lindy's).  Just like a normal day in our house, multiple things going on at once! We had to take breaks from dinner to see how Omelet was progressing on getting out of his shell. Our neighbor friends had to stop in and watch too! Finally, after about 90 minutes Omelet joined the other chicks bring Erin's birthday chick count to 3!
This was such a cool spring science project and it was literally a party when they arrived.

I love the excitement and joy everyone had looking into the incubator.

Our dinner was on the table while we were watching Omelet hatch!

Happy Birthday Chickies!

We came home from co-op on Erin's birthday to find 2 freshly hatched chicks! Literally just hatched, wet fur and stumbling around in the incubator.
I so hoped when we counted out the 21 day incubation period that we would have at least one hatch on Erin's birthday. Welcome Cutie Pie (Erin's),  and Freckles (Paige's). More to follow..

Fertility Testing

Day 14 of chick incubation was testing all the eggs to see if they were fertile or not. The girls were so excited to see if we had any chicks and I was afraid that we would have no chicks at all! A simple test with a shoebox and a small hole and setting the egg in the box then illuminating it with a flashlight gave us the answer. As neat as it looks to see light in the egg, that is not what you want! The dark eggs can't pass light because something is growing.  Fortunately, out of 12 eggs we had 6 that looked like a chick was growing!
We still had a week to go but now excitement was even higher because the kids could see their work on maintaining the incubator and turning the eggs was working. More to come when hatching begins!

Pretty, but no chick. 

Someone is in there!

What's in an Egg?

 One of our chick activities was to look at all the parts of an unfertilized egg. The girls really loved being able to get their hands in the egg and see the yolk and all the other parts that are now protecting their little chicks!
The best part was before cracking the shell they squeezed the egg as hard as they could and it didn't break. Little egg secret about consistent pressure being applied the egg will not crack no matter how strong the pressure is!

Incubating

Learning about chicks has been a great spring project. Besides learning about the life cycle and the structure of the egg the kids had daily responsibilities. Everyone took turns in the morning and at night recording the temperature and humidity of the incubator and turning the eggs.
Thank goodness the incubation period is only 21 days! The excitement is very high!

Eggs

The eggs made it safely home and once we got the temperature regulated on the incubator, they moved in. It has been a great experience for the kids to learn about the life cycle of the chicks and how the whole process of hatching works.
There is a check list that everyone takes turns doing the "Chick Chores". The thermometer must be checked, the eggs need to be turned, and the humidity checked.
When they were first placed in the incubator, we learned all about how strong the shells can be. Yet also how careful you have to be with having clean hands  when handling them. The girls marked x or o on each side (in pencil because ink can cause harm to the developing chick) so that they know which side to turn them to twice a day.
And then we wait...and wait. If all goes well Day 21 is on Erin's birthday so it's possible she will have a really special present this year!

Hen House

I didn't realize how far behind I was until I started going through all my pictures! Another spring break activity was to spend the day with our dear friends Kim, Grace, and Rachel. Kim's mom lives east of Columbus and has Amish friends who have farms. Last year, Kim hatched chicks and when we went to see them I committed right then to doing this with the kids this spring. So, for spring break Kim's mom was so sweet and had us over for lunch and then took us to a couple friend's farms.
The kids had a great time! We had tours and learned about the Amish which has opened up an entire reading topic with the girls. They are fascinated by the Amish way of life.
The second farm we went to has the hens and rooster that Kim hatched. The rooster was her first egg to hatch and is named for Jonah. JoJo the rooster was strutting around the hen house when we went in to visit. We were given the job to let the hens out for the day and what a hilarious event that was. Once we opened the little door (which only lets one hen out at a time!) there was a mad dash to escape. We had hens flying over our heads to get in line. It was hilarious!
We left with a dozen eggs to incubate and hopefully some will hatch. No matter what happens we have had such an awesome time on our egg adventure we will have to do it again!

The mass exit! Too funny!

JoJo the rooster.