Xanthe and Alwyn

 





We get the chicks out every morning and now we take them outside.I was playing with Alwyn. First he was on my hand then he ran up my arm and onto my shoulder and then before I knew it Alwyn was on my head every one thought it was funny. THEN I  felt something else on my head and it was a POOH! Then I decided not to let any more chicks on my head.
by Xanthe.

Weight Update

Hello everybody we are back with more chick stuff. This time we are telling you about chickens weight. We have been weighing the chicks every few days and watching their growth.  We have taken pictures of the chicks and we write their weight underneath their picture.
 The lightest chick is Stubby, he  weighed 45 gm after week 1,  50 gm after week 2, now he weighs 55 gm. We are a bit worried that Stubby will get picked on because he is so little. The heaviest chick is Toko, he started at 60 gm after one week,  he weighed 100gm on week 2, on week 3 he weighed 100 gm again and on week 4 Toko weighed 225 gm. All Black weighed 45 gm after week 1, he weighed 80 gm after week 2,then on week 3 he weighed  125,on week 4 he weighed 180 gm.The last chick we are telling you about is Fire, he weighed 50 gm on week 1, on week 2 he weighed 75 gm,on week 3 he weighed 100gm on week 4 he weighed 125.
This is the end of  the weight  update. Next week we are going to make graphs to show each chicks weight gain.
By Troy and Heidi.

New Brooder Box

On Wednesday the 26 of November Room 4 got a new brooder box. It has a wire lid so the chicks can't fly out which means we don't have to stay in at lunch. It also has a door that you can open but we don't open it because all of the shaving will come out.We have a lid because the chicks are learning to fly. Sometimes we have to clean out their home because they spill all their food and water. To clean the brooder box you have to take the chicks out of the box. Next you take the food and water bowls out. After that you have to put the shavings in the rubbish and put some new ones in. Now you can put some fresh water and food in for your chicks. Room4 makes sure that we don't put shavings by the food this stops shavings from going in the water but one or two get in once in a while.  By Abbey and Hollie

By Abbey and Hollie.

Chicken Playground

Every morning when we get to school there's always a chicken playground there. Kiwi and Toko try to fly out of the playground. Pearly and Alwyn like to perch on your shoulder and on the blocks. Stubby has a sore leg so we can't put him on the blocks. We don't know what is wrong with him.

Lots of people come in our room to play with the chicks, but we always have to pack up the blocks 10 minutes before the bell rings. There's always  poo on the newspaper when we pack up. There's always towers for them to perch on. Sometimes they get out and run out the door. Max is the first one get here so he can chose what chicken he wants. Sometimes some people put Alwyn, Kiwi, Toko, All Black and Creamy on their shoulders and they poo all down your back. Lots of people have started bringing a change of clothes to school in case they poop on you.    By Libby and Koen
                 

 

Chicken Biographies

Our Chickens 
Below is some information about each of our 11 chicks. 

Fire

Fire is one of our pet chickens, he is one of the smallest and he  is very cute.  He is about two weeks old. Fires personality is very funny because he usually goes on top of his little water trough and poos there,  which is funny.  He is starting to grow some feathers on his feet and legs.  Fire's height is a little bit over 13cm.  That is about the right height for a chick.  Fire's weight went from 50 to 75 to 100 grams.  We weigh him every few days.  He is a very colourful chick because he has a bit of green down the spine of his back.  Most of his fluff is a nice yellow sort of colour.  On his wings he has a bit of black and grey.  Fire's beak looks different to all of the other chicks.  It looks like it has been burnt.  It is not though.  Meg and I think it is a burnt beak because of when he was hatching, some of the egg shell might have got stuck to his beak.  Meg and I think he is the cutest chick in the world!

By Meg and Leah.  

Creamy

Creamy is one of the littlest chicks but has a remarkable voice.  We weigh them every week.  After one week old Creamy weighed 25 grams, and after two weeks he weighed 75 grams.  Creamy is 9cm tall and 10cm long.  When Creamy came out of the egg it still had some egg yolk with it.  The other chicks were hungry so they started to peck him.  We don"t know if they are boys or girls.

By Abbey and Arnika.

All Black

All Black is one of the favourite chicks in the class.  He weighs 125 grams and before that 80 grams and before that is was only 45 grams.  It has a black body with a white chest and bum and it has an orange and black beak and black eyes.  It is 12.5 cm high and he is one of the tallest chicks that we have.  All Black has lots of furry feathers.  We think that his fur is about 3 cm tall.  His personality is very good because he is a very healthy chick and he is friendly but he doesn't really like high places because he is scared that he might fall.
By Matthew Jones, Oscar Lowrie, Max Bridson

Kiwi

Kiwi has a white neck followed along with a brown coat and some brown feathers. He is growing more all the time.  When he was a week old we weighed the chicks. Kiwi weighed 50gms. After 3 more days we weighed the chicks again and he weighed 100gms. We weighed the chicks again yesterday and he still weighs 100gms. They are about 2 weeks old now.  Kiwi lives in a brooder box with the other chicks.  In the box with him are some shavings, a heat lamp above him and some food and water.  Kiwi loves to fly, when you pick him up he tries to fly out of your hands. Normally just after he flies, he poos!  Kiwi is really cute when he sits on your lap. He has a pattern on his wings that  goes - brown, black, white, brown, black, white. Kiwi has such adorable eyes. Hollie, Gus and Izzy think that Kiwi is cute, funny, annoying when he chirps, and smelly.  We all love him and that's the story about Kiwi the Chick. 

By Hollie, Gus and Izzy

Alwyn

Alwyn weighed 100gms after two weeks. First he was 45gms, then 70gms and now 100gm. Libby brought the egg in from her neighbour's, Daphane and Alwyn. We called the chicken Alwyn because the man called Alwyn died. Alwyn is the oldest chick we have and he is the tallest. Alwyn is black but his feathers are going brown. He is cuddly but if you put him on your hand he will try and fly off. He does like perching on people's shoulders.  

 By Libby and Roseabel 

Pearly

Arnika named one of the chicks Pearly.  She is yellow with a black beak, it looks like it has been burnt. Her wings are yellow with black bits.  Her weight gain has been slow. She was 50 grams when we first weighed her and she didn't put on any more weight the next time we weighed her, and then it got better, she went to 70 grams.  She likes to eat the special food that we give her. She has five claws on each foot and all of the other chicks only have four.  She loves roosting and every morning we build a park out of blocks and put the chicks in it.  She has a very flappy personality, because she loves to flap around like a headless chicken. Pearly has a very happy life.

By Xanthe and Pascoe

Toko

This is Toko the Chick.  Toko's weight at one week was 60 grams, it was then 100 grams and after a few more days he was still 100 grams.  Toko looks very tall when he puts his neck up.  Sometimes he fly's when he is not meant to.  Toko has a splotch of yellow on his head.  Toko cheeps a lot.  Toko has four claws on each foot.  Toko has lots of feathers on his body.

By Arlo, Koen and Abbie.

Stubby

This chick is called Stubby.  The reason why we called it Stubby is because it is so small and you can bearly see it's legs.  Stubby isn't one of the favourites.  Stubby walks very differently from the others, it is one of the smallest chicks that we have.  Room Four think that Stubby won't survive because it looks like it has got pecked underneath it's belly.  We think that it is a Silky Bamtam.  Stubby weighed 45 grams at one week, a few days later it weighed 50 grams and it's the same now.  Stubby is grey and yellow, it's beak is orange and black.  When you pick up Stubby, it flaps it's wings like it's trying to fly.  We don"t know if Stubby is a girl or a boy yet.  The chicks poo when they are really nervous.  They used to have poopy bums until we started to have bum wipers each week.

By Sarah, Jessica and Millie.

Poopy

Poopy is not one of the favourite chicks. Poopy twitches a lot and he pecks a lot. Poopy got his name because he used to always have a poo bum. He doesn't like fingers but he does like to fly. We say he is cute because of his wings - they are different colours than his body.  He is a grey chick.  He has a bald bottom because we had to wipe stuck poo off him and it took his fluff off.  He is happy to get away from people. He's a male by the looks of it. Poopy is two weeks old and he's a king kong fat chubby chick either way. He is fun but irritating when he chirps a lot and cute, loving and he is not a flesh eater.  He has got adorable black eyes. He weighs 100gms so that means he eats a lot. Poopy is a hunger machine and a grreat weight model.  He likes to light-bathe and relax. He is not the bravest, nor the weakest and he's not the brightest. He's not the best at flying either. He likes to cuddly Alwyn neck to neck. He loves walls because he curls up next to them.   By Troy and Sam 

Smokey

Room Four named one of the chicks Smokey.  We named it that name because it looks like smoke and it's a really dark grey.  The first week we weighed Smokey, it was 70 grams, the next week she was 80 grams and then next was 125 grams.  Sarah and Heidi think that Smokey is a girl because she has really smooth wings like a  hen not like a rooster.  Smokey's eye colour is pitch black.  Sarah and Heidi think that by looking at Smokey's eye colour it looks like there is no eye in it.  Smokey's beak colour is black on the top and orange on the bottom.  Smokey has four claws like most of the other chicks.  Smokey is sooo cute!!

By Sarah and Heidi.

Lazy

Lazy's weight is.......at the first week it was 30 grams, at the next week it was 70 grams, and the next he was 85 grams.  Lazy is two weeks old and quite big,  he's 10 cms high.  Lazy is 11 cm long, that's not very long.  Lazy is yellow with a bright yellow beak and is growing a comb.  Lazy's feathers are black and yellowish.  We chose Lazy as a chick name because Lazy was sitting on us most of the time and very friendly when we picked him up.

By Emma and Isabel

Opening Eggs

Today we had the amazing experience of cracking open the eggs that hadn't hatched and looking at them under the microscope.  My first egg was rotten and splashed all over my arm.  My second egg was cool, the embryo had started to grow and died at about day 7.  There were about five fully grown chicks that hadn't hatched, we think their sacks may have gone dry.  One looked as though it had even tried to get out.

After we finished, we buried the remains in the orchard.  It was  an awesome learning experience, we loved it.

On a more positive note, our eleven chicks are doing really well, living under a heat lamp in our classroom and cheeping away happily all day.  We love to pick them up and cuddle them!  Our classroom is always full of visitors and we are enjoying showing off our new babies.

By Pascoe Wells.

Saturday

Hi All
It's Saturday today and we've got 12 chickens. I think that's all we'll get as it's past the due date and there isn't any signs of action from the other eggs. I'll add pictures and a time- lapse video on Monday but thought you might like to know where we're at.  11 of the chicks are in the box and the last one is drying off in the incubator. Our classroom smells terrible and I'll probably clean out the incubator tomorrow. I'll keep the unhatched eggs and we can do some experiments with them during the week. There is one egg where the chick has died trying to get out and it looks very ugly. Not sure if I'll be able to keep that one as I'm sure it will smell pretty bad. The chicks in the the box are all happy and chirping away, so here's hoping they'll all survive the weekend.