28/05/2026
Our chicks 🐥
Throughout this term we have been exploring life cycles. During this time we had the special experience of observing the life cycle of a chicken, from an egg all the way to a big fluffy chick 🐥
Our journey began when they arrived cosy within an incubator - four white eggs, two blue eggs and one brown egg. For two weeks the eggs remained in the incubator, we candled them - using a torch to check if there were chicks growing inside each egg and unfortunately two glowed like a lightbulb, meaning this time there was no chick growing inside.
One morning when we arrived to our surprise a chick had hatched early! Throughout the day the following four chicks also hatched out 🐣
We were able to watch the chicks using their ‘egg tooth’ to peck their way out of the egg and join the others. Once they were all fluffy and dry, they moved into a bigger house called a ‘brooder’. It has a small heater that replicates what a mummy hen would do - keeping the chicks warm and cosy. They also have a bowl of water, a bottle of water and bowl of food pellets.
For the first week the chicks have to live on a ‘non slip’ mat to make sure their legs don’t stretch too far and to help them practice walking and climbing. After a week we swapped to sawdust shavings to help them practice digging for worms 🪱
The chicks we cared for were- three Cream Legbars, a Silver Legbar and a Vorwerk 🐔
The Vorwerk is the black chick with an orange head and when it grows up will have an orange body and a black head 🐔
The Cream Legbars will be a grey colour and lay blue eggs 🥚
The Silver Legbars will lay white eggs and be a browny colour 😊
The children have thoroughly enjoyed visiting our five fluffy chicks each day, observing them as they eat, drink, and practice using their wings. They our now on their next adventure at the farm, growing big and strong 😊
Thank you Eggucation 🐣❤️
