An Egg for a Classroom Pet?

Well, of course your not going to have an "egg" for a classroom pet. But maybe a baby chick! Caring for a chick requires love and compassion so make sure your ready.

Step 1:

Step 2:

You are first going to need a place to put the little chickies. We set our incubator and brooder box up in a pre-school classroom.

Step 3: A Must!

These are the items that are going to be crucial to raise a chicken.

1. Incubator (we used a HovaBator Advanced Egg Incubator Combo Kit from IncubatorWarehouse.com)

2. Brooder box

3. Feeding and watering containers

4. Bedding that will later be used in the brooder box

5. Heating lamp

Step 4: Getting the Eggs!

Photo credit-edenparadigm.com

Getting the eggs is a very important step. Of course its a important step but you need to make sure you get your eggs from a trusted farming website or a local farming business. ( Do your research!)

Step 5: When You Get the Eggs!

Getting your eggs will be very exciting!

But when you get the eggs you need to make sure you get them into the incubator right away.

When you do so you have to make sure you read the directions that come with your incubator because each one has a certain method of care.

Step 6: The Facts

It usually takes a chick 21 days to hatch.

We used a poster similar to the one above to show how the eggs developed. This would give students a better picture of why the eggs took so long to hatch.

Egg teeth (small, sharp points on the tip of the baby's beak) break off after they use it to break out of their eggs.

Step 7: After They Hatch

After the eggs hatch you will keep them in the incubator until they dry.

Do not wash the embryo off it will absorb into their skin.

After the fur is about all dried up you will put them in the brooder bin! With the heating lamp, food and water.

Step 8: Hatching

Video credit- Larry D Rueff

Step 9:

A huge thanks to Conoco Phillips for providing a teaching grant opportunity!

Comments

[Bavid]

You got my vote!

[gausband]

just a note- 4-H has some wonderful teaching materials on embryos, and chickens. You used to be able to download it for free, but I'm not sure if you still can now. We had a 3rd grade teacher at our local elementary hatch eggs for us as part of a month long teaching unit. Once the unit was done, and the kids got to see the chicks grow over a few days, the chicks came to live with us. It's a great learning experience for the kids.

[bhanon815]

That's awesome, I will have to tell my mom ( The pre-k teacher) about this she will probably be very interested!