SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — At the end of February 26 dozen fertilized eggs were sent out to participating Saratoga County Elementary schools for Saratoga Counties 4-H School Outreach program Incubation and Embryology. This annual program allows classrooms to experience the 21 day development of a chicken egg.
“Hatch Day” was on March 18th, many schools were closing the Monday prior to facilitate social distancing but developing chicks did not get the memo and were continuing to grow and prepare for hatching. 4-H Program Coordinator, Brieanna Hughes, worked with schools to take incubating eggs to finish the incubation process at our 4-H Training Center, a learning facility in Ballston Spa, NY. Other teachers chose to take the eggs home and hatch independently. Though it was not ideal to move eggs during the incubation process, teachers were left with little choice.
(photo by CCE Saratoga County)
On Tuesday, March 17th the first eggs began to hatch, the majority hatched Wednesday and a few on Thursday the 19th. Over 75% of the eggs hatched, a higher percentage than the year before with far less complications. This was a small miracle made possible in part, by cooperating elementary school teachers and Saratoga 4-H Staff working together.
“I am continually impressed with the community support that I have found in Saratoga County. Teachers went out of their way to ensure that incubating eggs remained safe and we were rewarded with an unbelievably successful hatch rate, despite all of the complications and uncertainties.” – Brieanna Hughes, Program Coordinator 4-H Animal Science and CCE Equine
(photo by CCE Saratoga County)
Saratoga County 4-H School Outreach program provides content rich, hands on programs to over 9000 K-6 grade students in Saratoga County. Incubation and Embryology is one of the many great programs. In addition to our School Outreach program Saratoga County 4-H provides programing to over 600 youth members in our county. Opportunities such as veterinary science projects, dairy and horse bowl, canine training and more can all be found here.
For more information about this program or other programs please contact Brieanna Hughes
–Brieanna Hughes, Saratoga County 4-H
