Field Day!

We had a great day competing in the Field Day Olympics!!!

Chicks

Last week the chicks went to their new home!! The family that took them also got 6 more chicks so they are a happy chicken family of 13! Here ate some pictures of our last day with them!

Chicks drinking

The chicks are growing!!

I am amazed how quickly these chicks are growing!! They all have wing feathers and some are attempting small flights!

More chick pictures!

We have had a great first couple of days with the chicks!! We celebrated in the morning with some amazing chick cupcakes made by a student and his mom! In the afternoon we watched the chicks eat and scratch their food! The students thought it was so funny how messy the chicks are!! All of the students have also gotten to hold a chick!!

They're here!!

We have had some chicks hatch!!!! So far 6 little ones have hatched!! Both classes got to see them hatch too!! More pictures to come!

The Last Turn

I went in this weekend for the last turning of the eggs! They have needed to be flipped at least 3 times a day for the last 18 days. Now the last 3 days they only need to be left alone...as we cross our fingers! Tuesday or Wednesday should be the day!!!

So far, so good!!

Day 2 has been a success! The students are doing a great job of helping remind me to flip the eggs! It is so fun to see how excited they are!

We are learning about each stage of the chicks development so far. Yesterday the head, brain, and spine started forming. Today the heart, throat and, and ears began to form!

I just continue to hope that we have some successful hatchlings! The only way to know though is to wait 19 more days!!

Here are some pictures of the incubator and some of their predictions of how many eggs will hatch. I love the optimistic 11s!!

Eggs!

I just picked up our eggs from Town Line Poultry Farm in Zeeland! They are a hatching farm for farm stores and home poultry enthusiasts!

We will be hatching Araucana chickens (hopefully). Town Line describes them as: 

They are called the Easter egg fowl because they lay colored eggs:

blue, green, pink, and olive drab.Birds vary in size and color, some with

 whiskers and others with muffs of feathers covering ears.
 

They should be interesting!!  Hopefully we will have between 6 and 10 chicks!

Town Line Farm

 

The workers putting the eggs into the incubators.  The incubators are the wood cabinets along the left.

  

Here is the incubator.  It holds 30,000 eggs!  The farmer said that they distribute about 140,000 chicks per week and have about an 80% success rate with their eggs..

 

Eggs ready for the incubator.

  

Boxes of chicks, ducklings, and other poultry ready to be picked up or delivered!!

 

Inside one of the chick boxes.

  

A mixed box...turkeys and ducklings!

  

Our little purchase from Town Line...12 Araucanas eggs, ready for the incubator!! 

Butterflies

We had a great time at Meijer Gardens!!  Here are a few pictures!!  Thank you to everyone who came!