Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

 This Mother's Day, not only do I have the privilege of being the mom of the coolest boy on the planet, I also get to help him "mother" a few eggs! If you remember, awhile back, we tried to hatch some chicken eggs . Unfortunately, we were not successful and we borrowed a couple of chicks from grandpa's farm to observe. This weekend, we brought them back to the farm. The children really enjoyed watching them for about two weeks.  Part of farming and learning about life is that things don't always work out, but in order to be successful, you need to be persistent. So, we came home with another batch of eggs and put our incubator going.  Hopefully we will have better luck with hatching some chicks of our own this time. (We will know in approximately 21 days!) If you have been following the blog, you also know that we have been out on a hunt to find some frog eggs .  This weekend, grandpa was also able to help us find some from his pond!  We were able to harves...

If you have been following our blog, you know that we started chicken eggs in our incubator awhile back. Unfortunately, we did not have any luck hatching our little chicks. (We will try again soon.) Fortunately, my dad still raises chicks and when we went for a visit this past weekend we were able to borrow a few chicks from the farm for a few weeks to watch. Baby chicks are quite amusing, I've found myself parked in front of their brooder box for quite some time. The children have been enjoying their company too. Here is what they have to say: "Baby chicks are pretty cool" "They can jump"  "They put their feet up like an ostrich and a flamingo" "They put their feet in their food and water a lot"  "They sleep when they are standing up. When they start to sleep standing up they fall down a little bit and then they wake up." "One of our chickens is really mean and he tries to jump out"  "One of the chickens tries to...

This week, we set up our chick-u-bator. The children have been very curious about those eggs sitting there.  "I wonder what is inside those eggs? Could they be alligators? turtles? turkeys? baby birds? chickens?"  After observing and talking about them, Dane and I told the children that we brought the chicken eggs from my parent's farm this past weekend. We keep talking about what Farmer Ricky had to say to teach us how to take care of the eggs. It is very important to keep the eggs warm.  Hens keep them warm by sitting on them. We decided that the eggs would probably crack if we tried to sit on them, so we are using an incubator instead. We need to make sure the eggs stay between 98 and 102 degrees. 100 degrees is the optimum temperature, but Farmer Ricky says that if the eggs are kept a little bit cooler it will take longer for them to hatch. If they are kept a little bit warmer, they will hatch sooner. Farmer Ricky also told us to turn the eggs three times a day....