Is hatching baby chicks right for you? Do you want to find a project for your kids to do at home during the coronavirus quarantine? Check out these 10 reasons to incubate chicken eggs and hatch your own baby chicks as an indoor activity for kids.
1. Teach Kids Biology or Science
The process of hatching chicken eggs introduces children to the reproduction process.
2. Teach Responsibility
The steps taken to care for eggs as they incubate teaches children responsibility. If the child will be carring for the chicks after they hatch the lessons in responsibility continue after the hatch ends.
3. Teach How to Deal with Disappointment
A hatch does not always end with every egg producing a chick. This provides an opportunity to speak to a child about how to deal with disappointment.
4. Learn about Candling Eggs
I compare candling eggs to a human ultrasound. Candling offers a look at the different stages of a chicks development as it grow inside the egg.
5. Entertainment
Baby chick antics bring old fashioned entertainment into a home simply by watching them. Holding a baby chick puts a smile on child’s face.
6. Provide Emotional Support
Baby chicks as a pet give a child an animal to cuddle and feel connected with in our current world crisis.
7. Connect with a Child and Instill Confidence
Sharing the process of hatching chicken eggs with a child brings about an occasion to talk with a child, explaining the process and anticipate the end result. You will be doing a project with them. I suggest involving them in the work as much as they are able. They will develop a sense of confideance.
8. Save Money on Baby Chick Prices
Did you plan to purchase baby chicks anyway? Hatching eggs offer a cheaper option to adding a rare breed to your flock.
The idea that hatching your own chicks will save you money depends on the price you would pay for chicks, the price of the hatching eggs, and how many chicks you hatch. I share additional details in the course Chick Hatching Practices. If you are new to chick hatching, consider checking out this course that offers guidance for chicken egg hatching.
Purchase now and receive the E-book, Plan Your Hatch as a bonus.
The course content is already available with additional videos, resources, and printables to be added soon. Begin today!
9. Give Expectation and Excitement during new Stay at Home Routine.
Children face a disruption of their routines as have their parents. Waiting for the chicks to hatch, candling the eggs to watch the chicks development brings a new sense of excitement. Looking forward to chicks hatching affords a distraction from all that is not happening right now. This works on adults too, or it certainly does for me.
10. Income
Sell the chicks if you are not able to keep them. If you live in a place where chickens are not allowed, connect with a homesteader or farm who would be interested in adding the chicks to their flock. You may be able to keep them for a few weeks before selling them.
You may be able to earn back part or all of the expense incurred to hatch the chicks. Either way tracking expenses and income brings another teaching option in math. A hands on lesson sticks with a person beyond book learning.
Bonus:
Teach patience.
Once you set the eggs in an incubator it takes 21 days for a chick to develop and hatch. The process happens and we all must wait for it to do so. No instant gratification to incubating chicken eggs.
Fluffy and Cute
The ways to enjoy the cute chicks abound from watching them interact with each other to holding them in your lap or perch one on your arm.