University of Connecticut Extension recently began posting livestream videos on their Facebook page of chicken eggs incubating at the New London County Extension Center for viewers to enjoy. The first livestream was on March 20 and several of the nearly daily videos have been viewed over 1,000 times.
The livestream was set up so that fifth graders in the STEAM 4-H club at Mahan Elementary School in Norwich could watch chicken eggs incubating and hatching, according to Pamela Gray, Educational Program coordinator at the New London County Extension Center.
In one of the projects the students in the club worked on, they learned about poultry and electricity by building model hen houses.
“We are doing a project called ‘Build a Better Henhouse,’” Gray said. “The kids have created hen houses out of shoeboxes, learned a lot about poultry and even learned about circuits and electricity by installing fans and LED lights (run by batteries) in their hen houses.”
The idea of a livestream of chicken eggs incubating and hatching was inspired by a similar project done by the University of Nebraska Extension-Lancaster County 4-H , Gray said. Before the eggs were incubated, the students saw them in person and were able to candle them to see inside.
“Heidi Herz, Educational Program Assistant, and I, with the support of the fifth grade teachers, thought it would be a one-of-a-kind experience for the kids to see eggs incubate and hatch,” Gray said.
After hatching, the chicks will be raised by families that are a part of 4-H, Gray said.
Gray said it was the first time they incubated chicks at the Extension Center, and the students “have learned a lot and it has been a roller coaster ride, for sure!”
Before starting the livestream on Facebook, the Extension Center encouraged people to subscribe to their YouTube channel because YouTube policy requires a channel to have 1,000 subscribers in order to post livestream videos.
Planning for the future, Gray said they hope to use YouTube for upcoming live streams and encouraged people to subscribe to the UConn Extension YouTube channel to make this possible.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of UConn Extension on Facebook.
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Henry Kulp is a contributor for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at henry.kulp@uconn.edu.