Hatching Chicks

with Mrs. Vaage's kindergarten

Every year I try to hatch chicks with my classes and every year I am amazed at the learning that occurs as a result of this study. Having this web site offers me this chance to share some of the learning.

Starting the Eggs:

I have a Styrofoam incubator that is used to keep the eggs at a consistent temperature. When I get the eggs from the farm, the first step is to coach the children on the type of eggs that have been started. This year, we had several chick eggs, a dozen duck eggs, and 3 goose eggs. 

The incubator is explained, the purpose, and the procedure. For example, we can never touch the thermometer dial because the chicks need to have a constant temperature of 99. 5; the window is used for viewing, so we never try to lift the lid; there are water trays in the bottom to add humidity. Just as a mother hen, duck or goose would do, I have the responsibility to turn the eggs a few times every day.

The second topic covered when the eggs are started is the probability factor for hatching. I explain that because these eggs come from a farm, we don't know if they are ordinary eating eggs, or if the hen had found a father so there could be a chick (or duckling, or gosling.)

The third topic is the waiting time concept. Children are so used to immediacy that I want them to learn to wait, that some things take some time to happen. So, we make hatching calendars. We draw the month, write in the numbers, count the days until hatching and clearly mark the expected day for hatching. For chicks, they hatch on Day 21, ducklings on Day 28, and goslings on Day 30.

We post the calendars by the incubator and every time we go to check on the eggs, we refer to these calendars. This is such a critical step for children. Because our hatching center was in the middle of our school, all children could come by to share in this hatching experience. Willi in Grade 1, for example, brought his teacher assistant every day to this center, and they counted how many days left to hatch. Children brought their parents to look, and I observed them pointing to the calendars to talk about how much time was left until they hatched.

Also on the bulletin board are chick development and growth phases charts, so we can point out how big the chicks are inside as the time progresses.

Hatching Time:

Mrs. Bezubiak, another kindergarten teacher in our school, arranged to have a delivery of an incubator of 19 day embryos from Miller Hatcheries. They arrived at our school and began to hatch 1 week before our own eggs were due to hatch. It was so exciting because this incubator had a clear plexi top and the children could see the eggs cracking and rolling. 

The very first chick to hatch was progressing so quickly, that we assembled all three morning kindergarten classes to observe. As I have done other years, I held this little egg in my very warm hands and let the children see the pecking beak, and hear the peeping inside the egg. They were thrilled and so very excited. This first chick was pecking with such strength, I anticipated it would be out of its shell within 15 minutes, so all watched and waited and cheered the chick on. Bits of shell would drop from my hand as the chick worked and the children near the front scooped those up in case the chick needed them. The hole got bigger and bigger and then we saw the chick start to push from inside to separate the egg apart. With about 10 of those pushes, the chick flopped out onto my hand. As I watched the children, their eyes were wide in amazement, some children were so engrossed that their mouths were dropped open. They were so quietly contained in their excitement, because they knew the chick might be frightened with so many children and too much noise.

When the chick was out, we noticed how wet it was, but in small groups, the children came to look at him closely, especially to see the egg tooth that he used to open the shell from the inside. Children documented in their journals the steps of the hatching process. Many children drew letters of welcome and love notes to the chicks which we added to the bulletin board.

Within a couple of hours, he was dry and fluffy, and encouraging his other brothers and sisters to come out. The next day, we moved them into a pet cage with a heating lamp to help them keep warm until their feathers started to grow in.

For the full week, children brought their parents over on a daily basis to watch them. They saw the chicks standing in their feed dish. They observed the chicks drinking, as they tipped down and then brought their heads up to let the water trickle down their throats. They poked their fingers into the cage so the chicks could come and peck at their fingers.

When it was time for our farm eggs to hatch on Day 28, we had one little black chick that came out. The children and the parents wanted to call him a duckling, because he was a different color. We had several discussions on the species of chickens and what colors they could be. This chick seemed incredibly tiny when compared to the other chicks that hatched one week earlier. This gave everyone a chance to document the growth rate of chicks.

Two other chicks tried to hatch. One struggled hatching and was not making progress, so I helped him with cracking the shell. When he pushed the shell apart, we saw that the egg yolk feeding sack had not been absorbed inside the chick and that he was not very strong. 

The Funeral:

The weak little chick seemed ready to leave this world a few times, and rather than hide him away from children's tender little hearts, we shared our concern and our strategies with them. 

Again, we brought the kindergarten children together to talk about the weak chick, who was lying snuggled in the incubator. We talked about how he looked, his eyes, his breathing, his helplessness. We noticed that he had the extra egg sack outside his body. I asked the children to tell me what they saw, asking them to verbalize their sensory information. Then I asked them to tell me what their hearts were feeling like, and they shared words like, "sad" and "mad" which of course are all part of the grieving process. I asked them what could we do to help the chick, and they thought of an animal doctor, and I explained that the doctor would not be able to fix this problem. They thought of talking to God, so we offered spontaneous prayers. Children said, "Please, God, make this chick better so he can live happy." "God, I don't want this chick to die." "Let this chick live until he is very old." Everyone who wanted to say a special prayer had a chance.

I asked the children what questions they had. They asked about what happens when chicks die; about why this chick had to hatch with this problem. These children were wrestling with profound life ethical questions at a level they could understand. They wondered about why God let this chick be hatched with this problem. They wondered why God didn't fix him. They wondered if there was a heaven for chicks. They offered each other ideas of understanding and together we came to realize that this is what life is all about. Some things make it, and some don't. The ones that don't make it get to go to heaven to be with God.

Then came the question, "Would this chick have been hatched good if he had his real mommy instead of the incubator?" Children are capable of such incredible understanding and perception, aren't they? Medical ethics 101! I had to answer, "I don't know." 

The little chick hovered for 2 days between life and death, and then abruptly died. News spread so fast among the children, and some children burst into tears. Others comforted them saying, "It's okay, he's with God now and he's not sick any more." They were remembering words and strategies from previous discussions. 

We planned a funeral, and put the chick into a box with some soft Kleenex. We brought some flowers and a candle, and put these things in the middle of our circle. I gave the children some words to start the occasion - "We are gathered together to say good-bye to our little chick, who die this morning. We are feeling very sad, and we want to share how special he was for us. Everyone had a chance to say what they loved about the chick. Then we each said a little prayer for the chick. My job was to take him home and bury him at on my acreage. By the time the parents came to pick them up, the children had worked through their emotions and I heard comments like, "Our chick died, but he's in heaven now. Mrs. Vaage's going to bury him at home." Parents were surprised at how mature they were about the entire process.

It's interesting, because one child was sure that God could resurrect the chick, because of the Easter story, they knew that Jesus came alive again. This child was sure that this chick would come alive again. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and a saddened child learned a lesson in the life cycle of animals.

The Autopsy:

After the chick died, the children wondered why the other eggs had not hatched. Why was there only 1 black chick? I took a deep breath and plunged in...

"These are questions that scientists have too, so if you would really like to find out, we could be like scientists and investigate." An outstanding affirmative answer moved us to discuss what we needed to perform these autopsies. They decided they would need gloves, a tray, and some paper towels.

When we had opened all of the eggs, the room was taut with emotion. Some children started to leave the room, but I called everyone back for a little meeting. I knew that they needed to find words to express their feelings and emotions, so I started a new sheet of chart paper and asked, "Who can tell me what we found?"

• mushy liquid - yellow

• two dead chicks - egg sack on the outside

• one chick that was growing but then stopped - 3 things wrong with it

• if we didn't investigate, we wouldn't know

• they didn't have the right things - the egg sack was not absorbed

• one was tiny

• one was like a regular egg, because there was no dad.

• we saw some blood

• maybe they would have grown with their real Mommy

• one egg smelled stinky and rotten

• We found out all this information because we cracked open the eggs that didn't hatch. We wore latex gloves. It was very hard to do this.

When we got the factual, sensory information recorded, I asked, "Who can tell me what our hearts are feeling like?" And now, the emotional words came out (sad, scary, fearfulness) and then the links to their previous loss experiences (My grandpa died. My fish died...) We ended with a prayer thanking God for letting us learn lessons about life, and asking for help to make our hearts feel "not so sad." When the children left the gathering corner, emotions were diffused and children were comfortable talking about the experience.

We created a display board to share our information with the parents.

This is the chick that died. This is me crying because it made me feel sad.	The autopsy procedure - labeled diagram.
Autopsy by Victoria M.	This is the egg that was plain. Kedra
Sarah Wondering if the real Mommy would have been better?	The Egg Good job Christopher, Rachel and Matthew

The Ducklings and the Goose

On Day 28, we got one duckling, the large yellow one in the photo. Little black chick kept him company for a day until the next two ducklings hatched. They surprised us the next day because there hadn't even been a crack in their eggs before we left to go home. In the morning, there they were. We left the incubator on for two more days just in case. When I began to clean the incubator out, I noticed one egg rolling and a peeping sound coming from it. What a surprise to find a little goose hatching! He's the grey and yellow one in the front! It took him one day to learn to walk, but I'm sure he thought he was a duck.

The children loved to watch them swim, dipping their heads, diving, and submerging. They studied their feet and beaks. They studied the way they drink water.

Ducklings imprint, so they would follow me around the school when I called them. Children would sit on the floor and watch me lead the ducks, watching them waddle and run peeping trying to keep pace with me. It was a source of great amusement and pleasure. But, once the ducks arrived, the chicks began to lose their appeal.

Time to Go Home:

Every year there comes a time when the children start to ask when it's time for the chicks to go home. If you look at the photo above, you'll see what the children began to notice. The chickens were becoming very messy and stinky. The chickens were not cute anymore when they got their feathers. Some chickens were very bossy and pecked at the other ones. They started to fly around and make a lot of noise, but mostly, the smell encouraged them to ask, "When are they going home?"

I keep them as long as they are tolerated because the children begin to observe the changes. They've seen the yellow fluff disappear and the feathers grow in starting with the wing tips within two days. They've seen that the rooster chicks have started to get a bigger and redder comb on the tops of their heads. They've noticed the chicks scratching for their food. They've listened to their calls and sounds and know when the chicks are frightened or happy.

Time to clean up the cages and mess around the center. The next day? The children notice how quiet the school is...