When I was in grade school, my grandmother got chick eggs and we did a science experiment hatching them. We had an incubator set up, diligently turned them ever so gently, held them up to a light to see what was growing inside, and took pictures of the whole process. When my baby sister was born, we did this again, so that she could see real baby chicks. They were soft and oh-so-cute and watching them emerge from the egg was amazing.
My daughter will never experience that.
My daughter will never experience that.
Since then, I have come to see more and more clearly that at-home and classroom hatching projects are less-than-ideal, to say the least. Here's why my daughter will never hatch chick eggs:
- One of my primary goals with Kay is teaching her to respect all living things. She doesn't have to like them necessarily, just respect that they have wants and needs just as much as any human. Hatching chick eggs to teach a lesson goes against this because it implies that animals exist just for human use. What happens when the lesson is over? Where are the chicks going to go? I don't know where "my" chicks went, but I often wonder.
- I'm a mom now and as such I have a greater sympathy with other moms, humans and non-humans alike. Every baby deserves a mom-figure to care for them; every mother who is able deserves to be with her baby. Hens are wonderful, caring parents. An incubator can never replace the diligent care a mother hen takes, gently turning each egg up to 30 times a day. She senses what her unhatched chick needs, and rotates them accordingly. Classroom hatching projects often end up with malformed chicks because they were not turned often enough.
The good news is there are lots of alternatives. Learning Resources has a plastic set of 21 eggs, showing the day-by-day development of a chick. United Poultry Concerns is a great resource for learning about chickens. They offer lesson suggestions, books and sites to explore for further info.
I sound like a bit of a killjoy. But all I'm saying that an egg-hatching project should be considered carefully from all angles, especially the message we are sending to our children that animals are disposable objects rather than creatures who require a lifetime of care and commitment.
I sound like a bit of a killjoy. But all I'm saying that an egg-hatching project should be considered carefully from all angles, especially the message we are sending to our children that animals are disposable objects rather than creatures who require a lifetime of care and commitment.
What are your thoughts about egg-hatching projects?
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