Chicken Scientists

Today we were scientists, observing (watching) the chicks to gather data about them. We sat in a circle with the chicks in the middle.

Our observation data:

We noticed that they are a lot bigger than they were. Their necks are longer too. We noticed that some of them have wing feathers now, and that one has tail feathers too. 

We observed what they were doing when they were on the ground. They were flapping their wings and running around. They pecked the ground and they seemed to be very interested in some playdough crumbs they found on the floor.

Weighing the chicks

We also weighed the chicks to gather more data. Here is the data we gathered.

We interpreted our data by talking about the differences in their weights.  

Black Panther is the heaviest chick. Penguin is the lightest.

Why is Black Panther is the heaviest? Maybe the older chicks are heavier? One of the grey chicks hatched first (probably Louie), so Black Panther is not the oldest.

Then, we separated our data into the two different breeds of chicken: we have 3 Orpingtons and 3 Speckled Sussex.

The Orpingtons are heavier overall, but one of the Speckled Sussex chicks, Goldie, is a lot heavier than the other two Speckled Sussex. It weighs the same as Fluffball, one of the Orpingtons. Goldie is also the chick that has tail feathers already.

Why is Goldie so much heavier than the other Speckled Sussex chicks? Why does Goldie have a tail already? Maybe Goldie is a rooster?

The chicks are going to live at Jenny’s house, but she will weigh them again next week and we can compare the new data to see whether we notice anything else.

Names for the chicks

Everyone in Room 14 has been really keen to name the chicks, so we wrote down the suggestions and voted for the most popular name for each chick. 

Black Panther

Fluffball

Louie

Goldie (forgot to look at the camera!)

Penguin

Stripe Dude (back view!!)

Our chicks are hatching!

 One chick hatched overnight, but we still had 6 eggs left in the incubator. We watched them throughout the day, and we saw 4 more chicks hatch! It was really exciting! 

We left two ipads to time-lapse film what was happening throughout the day. In one of the videos, you can see how the chicks peck right around the shell to get out. We left the chicks in the incubator for a while after they hatched, to let them rest and dry out, then we put them in the box with the other ones. They have a special heater in the box that they can sit underneath, just like they would sit underneath a mother hen to keep warm.

Here are our videos:

Here are the 3 oldest chicks in the box with the heater:

A chick hatched overnight!

 Yesterday we noticed that one of the eggs had a little hole in it. A chick was trying to peck its way out from inside. We were really surprised, because it was only Day 20 since we put the eggs in the incubator (hens' eggs take 21 days to hatch).

Nothing else had happened by the time we had to go home, so we set up the ipads on time-lapse to film the incubator overnight, and this is what happened...

Here is a picture of the chick:

It wasn't even the chick from the egg that had the first hole in it! This is an Orpington chick. We know this because this egg had an 'O' written on it by man who sold the eggs. The other type of egg we have is Speckled Sussex. We can tell which ones they are because they have 'SS' written on them.