CCS students study chicken life cycle

Second graders at Chase County Schools (CCS) celebrated National Ag Week last month by setting eggs in an incubator.
National Ag Week was March 10-16.
Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom is a program coordinated by the US Department of Agriculture, with a goal of helping students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and our society.
A chicken’s life cycle
It takes 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch.
“If it’s warmer they’ll hatch a day early, if it’s cooler they’ll hatch a day late,” said second grade teacher Arlys Cupp.
It must have been warm enough in the incubator, since the chickens were not supposed to hatch until Tuesday.
The first eggs started hatching Monday morning around 8 a.m.
For every day of the incubation period, students would see drawings of what the chicken looked like inside the egg.
Those drawings were shown on plastic eggs and displayed with the incubator.
“We’d add a new egg each day,” Food Service Director Amy Prior said.
Prior helped with multiple National Ag Week activities last month, another one being having local farmers and ranchers serve food at the school.
The students observed the daily progression of the development of egg embryos with teaching eggs that were opened each morning.
They also “candled” some of the eggs, where an egg was held under a light.
Candling allowed the students to see the details of the egg through the shell.

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