Chicks!

The exciting story of our 4 chicks and their brief stint in our classroom before relocating to calmer locales.  Told by the winners of our Edmodo essay contest:

Is that a peeping noise?!

It took twenty one days for our eggs to hatch.  We had seven eggs and four of them hatched.  The colors of them are yellow and brown.  We named two Gabriel and Kingsley.  We feed them grains.  We put a heating lamp underneath them.  They keep warm by cuddling together. We had to separate Gabriel from the two youngest chicks because he is stronger right now.  We put them in a box because the incubator is too small.  We care for them by putting water and food in the boxes.  We put paper towels underneath them.  The chicks make a pip noise sometimes.  The chicks can walk now.  They are also very sleepy.  The chicks’ feathers do not grow fast.

By Grace

Chick's eye view of Gabriel, the lucky chick born 1 day early.  Gabriel was named in tribute to our classmate who recently moved to Singapore.

Cleaning and caring for chicks is messy business.

The chicks eat grains and drink water in a tub.   At first we had an incubator that kept the eggs warm at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.  We need to keep them in a box and then we will send them back to the farm.  We had to separate some of them because they were fighting and pecking each other.   It takes 21 days for hen eggs to hatch.   When the chick inside the egg has been growing for 5 days you know if it is a girl or a boy.

By Mariana

Shadow was a bare-necked chicken.  He also was the loudest chirper.

Our class is taking care of four chicks named Gabriel, Kingsley, Shadow, and Daisy.  I am going to tell you how we take care of them. Well I will start off telling you what they eat. They eat grain. And to drink they drink water just water. We keep them in a big cardboard box.  They have a heating lamp to keep them warm.  They also cuddle and hug to keep warm if the heating lamp is not warm enough.  We are keeping them safe because we are not letting them run around in the classroom.   We are keeping them in a box.  We also have a heating lamp like I said earlier.  The first chick hatched on Tuesday, April 30th. Everyone was very excited.  Then that night the other three hatched. In the morning everyone saw that the other three hatched and we were even more excited!  I am so happy to have actual chicks in our class.

-Natalie

Mariana participates in our Chick Exercise Time.

We need to care for the chicks because they usually hatch at the farm and they are not used to being in a classroom.  2A gives them the most care a classroom could ever take care of.  It is really nice to have chicks in the classroom. I'm going to be really sad when they have to go back to the farm.  Kingsley is my favorite because he is small and funny.  I hope their visit in our class is nice for them.  I hope they are as safe with their mom as safe as they were with us.

-Brooke