Chicks of the School

Chicks of the School

by: Nitya and Ella, School News Reporters

Have you heard the news?  There are baby chicks at school!  

Mrs. Lamb’s class had school funds from last year and it was decided that they would raise chicks.  At first it was just for fun, but now it’s a Deep Dive for kids to try.  The class had fun raising the chicks and still are.

At first is was a lot of waiting, 3 weeks with nothing going on.  Recently the first chick hatched, and most had all hatched within 24 hours. The chicks are in the incubator to keep warm just like a hen would do. Mrs. Lamb said, “It gets to about 95 or a 100 degrees in there.”  That is how hot it needs to be for the chicks to hatch.

You start the process of hatching chicks by getting eggs, but you can’t just get any eggs, you have to get fertile ones. So you cannot just get eggs from the grocery store, you have to get eggs that have been fertilized by a rooster.  You also need special equipment to raise these eggs, like the egg turner and the incubator, which Mrs. Lamb already had when she taught 2nd grade.  

One interesting thing that you can do when raising chickens is, after 10 day you can take the egg out of the incubator and hold it up to a very bright light so you can see whether or not the chick is growing.  The class did this to see if the chicks were growing, and if the chicks are growing, they will most likely make it through the journey of life.  

When the chicks are all hatched and ready to go, the students will foster the chicks for about a week  and then send them off to a farm.  One student actually has a chicken coop at his house so he can raise a chick at his house.  

The class has almost completed the process of hatching chicks, but no matter what, the chicks of the school will always be cute and cool.