2021-22 Project

This year for poultry science I wanted to go back to improving my egg-hatching ability and share the experience with other kids. I am testing the effects of shipping on the hatch rate of eggs. For each trial, one dozen eggs were shipped to me and a second dozen eggs of the same age were left on the counter. I believe shipped eggs will have a lower hatch rate because of all the bumps and shaking during transport. As my research suggested I let the shipped eggs rest, air cell up, for 24 hours to help stabilize and reattach the egg membranes. After that, the same incubation and hatching procedures were used on both the shipped and control groups. In addition to my experiment, I am using my "Cooler-bator" (home made incubator) to hatch eggs for other people. I have hatched quail, chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults.

Because of Covid, I have not been able to visit classrooms and their embryology units were skipped for 2 years. I am in 6^th grade now and no longer in the same building with younger kids. I made this website with a live-stream video of the hatching process. I got funding from the Farm Bureau to purchase a dedicated quality webcam.