The Eggs are Hatching!

Today is day 21 for the eggs....hatch day....and....they are hatching!  When I left school Wednesday night, four eggs had some small cracks in their shell.  When I arrived at school today....four baby chicks awaited!  Three Blue Andalusian chicks and one Barred Rock chick!  By the time I left today, four more Barred Rock chicks hatched!  We have 6 eggs left....we'll see how many are waiting for me tomorrow!

 

The first four chicks that hatched!

The little black chick in the center just hatched!

Tomorrow, the dry chicks will be put in the brooder where they will live until they leave us for upstate NY!

The Chick Eggs Are On Lockdown!

Today is day 18...only 3 more days until the eggs hatch!  Inside the egg, the chicks now have their feathers and the egg tooth at the tip of their beak that helps them crack their eggshell! To keep the conditions ideal for hatching the eggs, the incubator won't be opened again until the chicks hatch..they are on lockdown!

Only 3 more day until they hatch!

Many of the classes think all 14 eggs will hatch!  Two years ago, we had 20 eggs and 19 hatched, so hopefully we will be successful again this year!

The eggs are out of the turner.  The humidity
level is now between 65 and 70%.

The brooder is ready for when they hatch! 
Water, food and a heat lamp!

In a day or two we might even be able to hear the chicks cheep inside the shell! Lots of excitement in room 112!

Our Chick Eggs Have Arrived!

Our chick eggs arrived from Meyer Hatchery in Ohio on Thursday! They came in the mail and all 14 eggs survived the trip!

We have an assortment of eggs.

The incubator is set at 100 degrees F and around 50% humidity.

The eggs are placed in the turner!

In 21 days our eggs should start hatching!  We don't know how many will hatch, but we can't wait to find out!

A Mother's Day Surprise!

Today is day 25 for the duck eggs.  Only three days before they hatch!  Today is the day I take the eggs out of the egg turner so that when the duckling start to hatch, they won't get caught in the turner.  I also increase the humidity level from 55% to 67% percent to help keep the duckling moist which helps with the hatching process.

Imagine my surprise when I looked in the incubator and saw that three of the eggs had pips (where the duckling pecks the shell to get out)!  Once you see the pip the duckling will hatch anywhere from 24 to 36 hours later.  I could even hear them chirping inside their shell!

Now we wait.......

The Duck Eggs are Here!

The duck eggs are here!  I picked the 10 eggs up at the Hart's Brook Preserve yesterday.  

We have 4 Pekin eggs.

The ducklings.

The adult ducks.

And 6 Rouen eggs.

The ducklings.

The adult ducks.

The eggs are now in the egg turner that slowly rotates the eggs.  The temperature is a steady 100 degrees with a 55% humidity level!

Once a day, the eggs are turned over.  The x
helps keep track of the turning.

And now the waiting begins!  It takes 28 days for the eggs to hatch.  Our hatch date is around May 15th!  Stay tuned!

A Surprise in the Classroom!

Fiona, our pipadae aquatic frog, laid eggs for the first time in five years this week!  It was such a surprise!

Eggs everywhere!  Even on the plastic plant!

I spoke with the company that I get my frogs from, and they said, don't get too excited (as if that was possible!), they are tricky to hatch.  She told me to separate the frogs from the eggs so they won't be tempted to eat the eggs (which look a lot like the food I feed them).  She also told me, if the eggs hatch, it's usually takes around 36-48 hours.  The first day, the eggs looked like a period.  The second day the eggs looks like a comma.

Will they hatch? 

On the third day....they hatched!  Around 100 little tadpoles are hanging out in the habitat.

Once the tadpole hatches, it hangs around for a bit before
exploring the habitat.

I was worried that over the weekend, the tadpoles wouldn't survive.  I was so amazed when I came in on Monday!  I had so many eyes looking up at me! They seem to be doing well and double in size every two days.

These tadpoles are especially interesting for the classes as their skin is transparent.
When they get big enough, you can even see the tadpoles heart!

Wow! The Chicks Have Grown!

Here is a picture of our chicks from their upstate home...they aren't so little anymore!

I was given eggs laid by chickens a few years older than ours.  Our chicks won't start laying eggs for another few months! The lighter egg in the middle was laid by a younger chicken than the other bigger and darker eggs.

The Chick Eggs Are Here!

Today I to North Salem, NY to pick up the chick eggs!  This year we have 10 Barred Rock eggs (from Idaho) and 10 Freedom Ranger eggs (from Pennsylvania).   

Some chickens wandering around at the egg pick up spot!

The eggs were carefully laid on the floor and survived a bumpy drive back to Brooklyn!

The eggs are protected in cartons and a plain old plastic bag.

 The eggs are placed on the egg turner in the incubator.  The optimum conditions for the eggs are 100F and between 45-55% humidity.  Now the count down begins.....21 days until they hatch!

20 eggs rotating!

Our Silkworm Moth Laid Eggs!

What a surprise!  Our one female Silkworm moth has laid eggs! She seems to rarely move except to lay her eggs!

In three days the eggs will turn black if they are fertile, white if they are infertile.  They will hatch in about two weeks after being being subjected to "winter" in the refrigerator.  I read that they can live in the fridge for up to five years!

The Duck Eggs Are Half Way There!

It's hard to believe that our duck eggs will hatch in just 13 more days - around June 2nd!  So far, everything looks good.  We have all 8 eggs still growing.  This week we checked their growth by "candling" the eggs.  This is done by putting a bright light on the egg and seeing how the egg looks inside!

Carefully an egg is chosen to see how it is growing.

The flashlight is placed right on the egg.

Right under the light is the air sac.  The lines are veins.
All good signs for this egg!

In this egg you can see the embryo at the bottom of the egg!

This egg I'm not too sure about.  No veins.
We'll have to wait and see!

Nurse Jessica came by to see if she could hear the duck's heart beat, but she couldn't.  She said she would need a different type of stethoscope.

Whenever we get a chance, we take a quick peak at the incubator to see if anything is happening!

Our counting calendar!  The blue star is when the eggs come out of the egg turner.
The black egg is the hatch date!

This is what our ducklings will look like!

The Duck Eggs Have Arrived!!

I am very excited to let everyone know that the duck eggs have arrived!  The eggs arrived from a farm in California on Tuesday.  We were supposed to have three different types of duck eggs, but thanks to a mix up at the airport, we have six different types of duck eggs: Crested, Runner, Cayuga, Welsh Harlequin, Grimaud and Duclair.

The eggs are safe and warm in the incubator with a constant temperature of 100 degrees.  Stay tuned for more exciting news about our eggs!