Easter Eggs

EASTER WITH THE HENS

 

We have had a wonderful term with our Wicor Chickens and all the classes

have now had a turn to look after them. 

They have coped with wind, rain and very icy weather, and the other day I watched them all lined up, basking in the hot sunshine!

They are so happy that for the last three weeks they have ALL laid an egg every day, so do the maths....

 

(7x8=?)x3=?

 

That's a lot of eggs!

 

 

 

Some of the Year 3 children have been finding out how to 'blow' an egg, to get the insides out and decorate them.

 

 

 First, Mrs Coles made a hole in

                               both ends with a sharp needle.                                

  

 

We then had lots of fun blowing the albumen ('white part') out through the hole..........

                                 .................. followed by the yolk ('yellow part').
                                                                    It was yucky!

Mrs Kimber had a go, too.

              

When we had washed and dried them, we had a good time designing and doing our decorations, threading a line through to hang them from, and adding jewels at each end to stop up the holes.....and make them look lovely.

Izzy, Ruby, Ellie and Blossom were very proud of the results!

 

Happy Easter everyone, enjoy your Easter Eggs, and have a go at 'blowing' one.

 

In case you're wondering, the hens will have a great time while everyone's on holiday

being looked after by:

Mrs Pattison, Mrs Knight, Mrs Williams, Mrs Hurst and Mrs Coles.

 

Thank you, ladies!

                            

The Solar Eclipse

The date; 20th March
The time: 9.30 am
The place: Wicor Primary
The event:  Solar eclipse

We waited for the cloudy sky to clear, for just a tiny glimpse of the Sun.  Nothing but clouds.
The time came and the sky darkened.  The birds stopped singing...even our hens went quiet - they seemed strangely subdued.  It was Class 5M's turn to look after the hens and check on their eggs.

Meanwhile back in Year 3, Mr Wildman was explaining the strange things that sometimes happen during a solar eclipse...you know, like birds laying strange coloured eggs.

Lunchtime:  Class 5M look in on hens and see if there are any eggs...

Look what they found...

There were 9 eggs (but they usually lay 8) and one of them was...GOLD!  The eclipse had worked its magic.  The hens had laid a golden egg.  

No, it's definitely a golden egg 

Let's seek the wisdom of Mr Wildman. 

But he's usually asleep in Darwin's chair at this time.

No we must wake him.

Yes, it's a golden egg - the eclipse has affected one of the hens 

"I was only talking to Year 3 about this strange phenomenon.  Go and show them, they'll be amazed."

Look, Year 3...a golden egg

2W's Chicken Week

2W looked after the chickens this week. Mrs Coles and Mrs Pattison helped us. We fed some corn to the chickens; they were happy to peck it out of our hands. We ensured they had fresh water everyday.
We also checked in the chicken coop to see if there were any eggs. Most days we collected 6 eggs when we went in the morning. We sold these at the office everyday.
Some of us were brave enough to pick up the chickens carefully. We were delighted to finally meet our Year 2 chicken, Billie-Daisy. We knew how to identify her because she has a green band around her leg.
Wicor chose to have hens and not roosters so we would get eggs everyday. Roosters would also have been too loud for our neighbours!

Eggs for the Office

Daily half dozen

Billie-Daisy turned out to be a bit of a handful!

4M look after the hens

We were very excited to have our turn in looking after the hens for the week before the spring half term holiday.  We were desperate to see how our own hen for Year 4, Egg Sheeran, had settled in with her companions and to see how many eggs we would find each day in their nesting boxes!  A group of us went out each day, making sure that we listened carefully to our instructions on the correct way to hold the chickens, how much feed and water they need and how to clean the path in their home.

collecting the eggs

Will the real Egg Sheeran stand up?

We also learned that in order to make sure that we did not carry germs into our chicken’s habitat; we needed to use a special foot bath to wash the bottom of our shoes.  The foot bath was really easy to use and we were very careful to make sure that each one of us used it before entering the chicken run.  As the foot bath contains a special disinfectant, we made sure that after we had used it, the lid was carefully replaced so that other wildlife and the local cats could not drink it.  If that happened, these animals could become very ill indeed, so we learned how important it is to care for ALL of our animals and our feline visitors.

Class 4M

Why were staff wearing funny shoes?

Last week Miss Fuller and Mrs Coles put on special footwear and went walking in the chicken poo, closely watched by Mr Wildman and the chickens. Why? We were collecting the poo to send off for testing for salmonella.  This is not something that we have to do by law, because of the number of chickens that we have and the environment that they are kept in, but is something that as a school we think is worthwhile.  The samples are sent to a testing centre in Newcastle every three months.

1N with the hens

We have loved looking after the hens this week. Lots of us have hens at home so we are very knowledgeable.

Every day we have given the hens new food and water. We were really good at keeping the path clean and we found lots of eggs.

Just like 3N we found a ginormous egg...
 ...and when we cracked it open it had 2 yolks!

We weren't sure why it had 2 yolks but we thought it might be that if the egg was fertilised and hatched then twin chicks would come out. If you know the answer then please do let us know.

The hens have had lots of treats from us this week.  We made small parcels filled with seed. The hens had to figure out how to open the parcels to get to the seed which they managed very quickly.

 

As it was Halloween last week we gave the hens a pumpkin and after just one day this what we found...

It had been completely scoffed!



Half Term for the Hens

This was the first half term for our hens and they were in for a quiet week. There were no children in school to pop over and chat to them, so they had to make do with visits from a few willing grownups!

Well that's what we thought, until Monday morning, when workmen arrived to do things around the school and proved to be very interested in the chickens.
They came over and talked to them and chatted to school staff, with helpful advice and ideas. 

Mrs Knight, Mrs Hurst, Miss Neale, Mrs Pattison and Mrs Coles all came in to see them and made sure they had plenty of food and water. Water was no problem, it seemed to rain a lot last week!

We discovered that the hens quite like going out in the rain. They all got soaked through several times and looked very bedraggled, but when the rain was really heavy, they huddled together under a bush. When the sun came out they lined up, with their backs to the sun, drying their fluffy backsides out!

On Wednesday morning, Mrs Coles found a really tiny egg (smaller than a golf ball) in amongst the ordinary sized ones. When it was opened there was no yolk!
                                                     
We had fun at night when putting the hens to bed as the clocks went back on Sunday. We wondered if the hens would mind going to bed an hour earlier.
But it didn't matter, they like to be inside when it gets dark, so trooped happily into their lovely henhouse at dusk.