St John the Baptist BNS, Cashel welcomed special visitors this week. We received seven eggs from a farm in Clare. The Inagh Free Range Farm are involved in a programme called Hatch 4 Schools. Hatch 4 Schools aim to provide an educational experience for pupils, bringing the joy of watching eggs hatching, and chicks emerging from their shells into the school environment.
The boys enjoyed the wonder of seeing an egg hatch and watched the newly hatched chicks in their special cage. The eggs were delivered on Monday and both the boys and staff were busy watching the eggs wobble and listening to the cheeping from within the egg.
Temperature and humidity levels are closely controlled in sophisticated machinery during the main incubation period. This is to ensure that the eggs all hatch in school. The hatching process was watched by the boys through the 360 degree, high visability hatcher.
Once dry and fluffy, the chicks were transferred to the brooder box. The chicks also have a heat lamp, bedding, food and drinker. The chicks will stay with us for two weeks and then return to Inagh Free Range Farm a family run farm in Co. Clare.
