A New Experience & A New Year

A New Experience & A New Year

January 10, 2021


(One of the chicks peeking up at me from the brooder!)

Happy New Year, fellow readers! To start off 2021, I have a surprise: I'm raising chicks! We picked them up as 1-week-olds from a local hatchery. The reason I'm raising chicks in the middle of winter (which is not normal, as chicks are usually raised in spring) is that I am doing research on them for an experiment at school. More on this below!

Two weeks ago, we brought home a bagful of peeping, sleeping chicks! We decided to get 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte, and 3 Easter Eggers. They are the cutest bunch! I was only supposed to get 2 chicks for my experiment, but we decided to get four, so that we would have 2 chick backups. 

At school, we were supposed to develop our own lab experiment and complete it over winter break. So I, being the chicken freak that I am, clearly decided my experiment had to do with chickens. The purpose of my experiment is to find out whether classical music affects a chick's smartness and growth. Many people have done this on incubating eggs, and on egg-laying hens, but barely anyone has tried this on chicks. Which is why I am doing this experiment.

When we first brought the chicks home, I separated 2 chicks to my bathroom, and 2 chicks to the garage. I put them in brooders stocked with feed, water, dirt, shavings, a roost, and a heat lamp. Both groups live normal chick lives, except that the chicks in the bathroom are exposed to classical music 24/7. I have begun recording data in a table and a log. There is a major difference between both groups of chicks so far. The classical chicks are much bigger, and will recognize their name. The other chicks are much smaller, and will not recognize their name. So far, so good!

Possibly in the future, I may enroll my experiment into a science fair. For now, I hope my experiment will turn out well and inspire other experiments at my school. As for the chicks' future, I don't know what we will do with them. Since we don't have enough space in our coop for more chickens, I may have to sell them. (Which is why I'm not naming the chicks, so I don't get too attached to them.) But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. What a new experience and a new year!

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