The Henderson County  Barnyard Bandits  4 H club has embarked on an EGG SCIENCE project. 

They are hatching out chicken eggs.

The science of studying eggs is called Oology. 

And the science of studying the developing embryo growing inside the egg, is called Embryology.



Fertile eggs that have never been washed, are collected and kept in an incubator until they hatch. 

It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch.

The incubator keeps a constant temperature of 100 degrees fahrenheit and maintains a constant humidity.



The eggs are various colors from white, cream, brown, pale green, and blue.  Different breeds of chickens lay different colors of eggs.



This is Tammy, and she turns the eggs THREE times a day, and makes sure the incubator is maintaining its temperature and humidity. 



Today, Tammy is also going to show us how to candle the eggs to make sure the baby chicks are alive and growing inside the shell.



The children are very curious about the green and blue eggs.  They have seen white and brown a lot, both from the store and from the farms we visit.  We used to raise chickens that laid them on our farm.   But it has been a few years, and though the oldest remembers, the others do not.  So Tammy first helps the children identify what breed of chicken the blue and green eggs are from.   

Do you know?



The answer is…..

Ameraucana Chickens

Just like their eggs, the birds themselves come in lots of colors.  If you would like to see what the baby chicks look like read here.

If you would like to see pictures of the adult birds, chicks, and eggs, see more here.

These are absolutely beautiful birds.  I grew up with them running all over my grandparents farm.  My grandma called them the Easter Egg Chicken.  They were her favorite chicken on the farm!

If you would like to learn more about this breed read here.

Next, Tammy placed the eggs one at a time, over a flash light.  This allows her to see a shadow of a growing chick inside each egg.  She can see the chick move too.  This was very exciting for the children as they watched her candle each egg.  It is called candling because in the old days, they used candles for this process. 

I remember the excitement as I used to watch my grandma candle eggs on the farm growing up.   But hatching day is the most exciting!  

Ohhhh, the anticipation……



This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to see the developing life inside the eggs.

If you would like to learn more about hatching chickens or other bird eggs with your child, or perhaps do some egg science projects, or just read a fun story read HERE.