Eggs hatching in Year 1

Date: 20th Jun 2016 @ 4:19pm

We had a special delivery today in Year 1. Seven eggs have arrived and are in an incubator keeping warm. We have been thinking about what will hatch out of them. Could it be snakes? Maybe it could be a kind of bird but we are not sure what kind. Other suggestions were lizards or dinosaurs! We know it can't be a whale or a hippo!

Day 1: The eggs keeping warm in the incubator.

Day 2: The first egg had hatched when we arrived at school this morning! It is a duckling. We can tell because of the shape of its beak and webbed feet. Two more eggs hatched around dinner time. We have to take the ducklings out of the incubator and put them in a large box where they have food, water and a heater to keep them warm.

Here you can see a duckling that has just hatched.

Duckling number one has dried off nicely.

Ducklings two and three are resting after working hard to get out of their eggs.

Day 3: Duckling number four had arrived when we got to school this morning, but no more have hatched since then. Mrs Marshall has named them Hughie, Louie, Dewey and Donald. In fact we don't have a way of knowing if they are boys or girls. We do know that they are Pekin Ducks, and when they are fully grown they will have white feathers and yellow beaks.

Day 4: No more eggs have hatched but the four ducklings have had their first swim today! All the children have held a duckling and felt how soft their downy feathers are. We have drawn pictures of them too. We noticed how their feathers are waterproof and how quickly they dried after their swim.

Day 5: The ducklings are going home with Miss Costello for the weekend so she can look after them. They will be back on Monday for a few more days before they go back to the farm. Unfortunately the last three eggs haven't hatched, but we were told this could happen. We are pleased that the four ducklings are healthy and growing fast.

Thursday 30th June

The ducklings were collected this morning to return to the farm. We were sad to see them go but we could see that they are growing too big for their box and that they would be happier outside.