We have three duck eggs, four chicken eggs and eight quail eggs.

Students worked with a partner to read the instructions that came from the biological supply house that supplied the eggs. After taking notes in their learning logs, students contributed information from their notes to create a web of information about hatching eggs.

A special thank you to Mrs. Davis, Science Lab Teacher, for ordering the eggs for us.

LA Standard 2.1.d

Four of the eggs were cracked in transit, so we opened one to see if we could see the fertilized cells. If you look closely, to the right of the arrow, you'll see a white circle. We believe that this area is the fertilized cells.

Students completed a table like this, based on the hatching information they read.

Kind of Egg	Date Placed in Incubator	Days of Incubation	Predicted Hatch Date

Chicken	April 6, 1999	21	April 27, 1999
Quail	April 6, 1999	16 to 18	April 22 or 24, 1999
Duck	April 13, 1999	28	*

* We aren't sure when these eggs will hatch, because they came straight from the duck's nest. The man who got them for us said they might hatch in a couple of days or as long as two weeks.

Read more about the development of chicken eggs in Chicken and egg, by Christine Back and Jens Oleson, a Stopwatch Book, published by Silver Burdett Books (ISBN 0-382-09284-8).

We have babies!

Over the weekend, three of our quails hatched. Today, we found them and Ms. Ezzell put them in an aquarium with a light to keep them warm.

By Rebecca

We have quails. They just hatched. They are cute. When something moves, they think it's a bug and they try to eat it.

By Harry

On Saturday, our quail eggs hatched. They have a light on them to keep them warm, so they won't die. They drink water. They eat chicken feed. The quails are very small. (Compare their size to the quarter!)

By Julian

Sad News...

On Monday, May 10, Ms. Ezzell found our quail chicks dead when she returned to school. We were sad that they died. But...

Good News...

On Wednesday, May 5,a duck egg hatched. Quacker Blacker, as he's called, was very weak and we were afraid he wouldn't survive. But, he's a week old and thriving! Here is a picture of him as he eats his food.

Quacker Blacker
May 13, 1999

One of QB's first swims in our Project SWELL pond...

The goldfish were curious and QB tried to catch them!

QB grew...and grew...

As you can see, Quacker Blacker (QB, for short) grew and grew! Here's a shot of him in the Project Swell Pond, along with Doc and Alice, ducklings hatched by Ms. Owen's class. They are sitting on a stone that the students called Duck Island. The ducklings liked to sit on the stone, soak up sun and preen themselves.