5/13/13
11:27pm
Okay so this post is dedicated to seven things. 2 of them are humans, the other five are chicks....could've been chicks?....were chicks? Anyways, the first two are my lovely parents.
Thank you guys soooooo much. I really just couldn't have done all that I've done so far without you guys! You guys watch over my chicks while I'm out, help set things up, help monitor cages and temperatures and humidities, and give me great ideas over all. You guys are the main reason I was able to do this project and successfully see it through, and now we have 5 chicks!:) I'm so thankful and grateful for you guys!
The next topic is not as happy though, and I kind of feel bad combining these posts together. But today I took the remaining 5 eggs out of the incubator. After I candled them to see if I could see anything in the egg...well I could see in there. And it wasn't all that I wanted to see. None of the chicks made it:( there were no veins in some, and some just stopped developing a while ago. One egg I saw a foot and a wing in it, but they were very underdeveloped and it was really sad :( so RIP to Edward, Ron, Larry, Harry, and Katniss:(
Monday, May 13, 2013
Entry #42: Jacob's Bootaaayy
5/13/13
11:13pm
So the last little guy to hatch was Jacob. And he had a very hard time coming out of his shell as you guys remember. So my parents had to help him out quite a bit. And as you guys read last post, poooor whittle Jacob has a deformed foot :( his toes curl inwards instead of spreading out flat.
Well taaadaaaa
He's healed!!!....sorta. We made him a little bootie, just like in the link I posted last time! He's kind of pissed at me though..as shown in the picture. He's just rockin' the new style is all. It's just the sticky part of a bandaid folded over. It was kind of a struggle actually, getting that thing on. It literally took me and my mom and my dad. And all the while, Jacob is screaming bloody murder. You'd actually think we were torturing him by the way he peeped! For their size they make sooo much noise when they want to! We spread his toes out so they would be normal, if he could walk normally, and then just folded it over. Now he walks kind of funny..and looks even funnier! But it's better than before! I'm not sure why his foot is deformed. It's really not that bad actually, it just seems like he has no muscles in his toes or something. I'm not 100% sure. It didn't seem to hurt him when I touched his foot or anything so thats a good sign!
I tried putting him in the other cage with the other chicks but they were way too interested in his sweet kicks and would just peck at it! Jacob just doesn't really have the strength to be in a cage with four of his siblings just constantly pecking at his poor little foot:( So I decided to keep him in the incubator for a little more time.
My mom is going to contact someone at Cornell who has another heat lamp so I can put Jacob in his own cage. That way I can properly teach him how to eat and drink! So far he'll only take water droplets from the tips of my fingers which is just wayyyy too cute :) my mom saw him take some water from my finger and she almost cried hahaha.
He's adorable. He's the runt of the family and he's by far my favorite of them all. Maybe it's because the other little chickies are more agressive...or maybe it's because I'm the runt of the family in my family, so I sympathize with him.
11:13pm
So the last little guy to hatch was Jacob. And he had a very hard time coming out of his shell as you guys remember. So my parents had to help him out quite a bit. And as you guys read last post, poooor whittle Jacob has a deformed foot :( his toes curl inwards instead of spreading out flat.
Well taaadaaaa
I tried putting him in the other cage with the other chicks but they were way too interested in his sweet kicks and would just peck at it! Jacob just doesn't really have the strength to be in a cage with four of his siblings just constantly pecking at his poor little foot:( So I decided to keep him in the incubator for a little more time.
My mom is going to contact someone at Cornell who has another heat lamp so I can put Jacob in his own cage. That way I can properly teach him how to eat and drink! So far he'll only take water droplets from the tips of my fingers which is just wayyyy too cute :) my mom saw him take some water from my finger and she almost cried hahaha.
He's adorable. He's the runt of the family and he's by far my favorite of them all. Maybe it's because the other little chickies are more agressive...or maybe it's because I'm the runt of the family in my family, so I sympathize with him.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Entry #41: So Many More
5/12/13
11:50 pm
Sorry I haven't posted again! Sooo much has been happening this weekend it's so hard to keep up!(it was prom weekend)
So since Bella hatched on Friday I've had 3 more chicks hatch!! Now there is Moe, Bella, Hermione, Peeta, and Jacob! They're all sooo adorable! Jacob actually just hatched this morning while I was still at my friends house. My parents and I had to really help out with his hatching though.
He made a pip in his shell Friday night, late at night, and Hermione was pipping too. (Pipping is basically when the chick begins to make cracks in the shell, starting to come out.) So I went to bed and in the morning I woke up to find two chicks had hatched! But it wasn't Hermione and Jacob like I had expected. It was Hermione and Peeta! This was startling because none of us had seen a crack on him. But Jacob had made no progress, and in fact, in the tiny little hole where he had pipped, it had turned a dark yellow color. So I went about my prom business, stopping in to see any kind of progress...and there was none. So my dad and I did a lot of research about helping chicks getting out of their shells and when to do it and then we proceeded to help little Jacob.
I took a q-tip and wet it with water and starting wetting the membrane that was showing. Then I peeled off a little of the shell will some tweezers. I wrapped the egg with some warm, wet paper towel so that the rest of the membrane would be easily broken by the chicks beak when it was time to come out.
Then I had to go to prom:( so I couldn't do anything more to help the little guy out. Luckily my parents helped him hatch, and now he's doing alright.
But then today I noticed one of his feet all his toes curl inward, instead of straight, so he has a hard time walking. I looked it up and I found that you can make them little cardboard booties to fix this problem.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/51112/chick-with-curled-toes
That's the link with a picture of the booties, if you scroll down.
Then there's Peeta who I'm worried about as well. He won't open his eyes anymore, I'm afraid that the others may have pecked his eyes, or I found that some chicks have conjunctivitis. Because his eyes aren't open I worry that he doesn't find water or food. And since he can't find water or food, his energy levels are way down. Every time I look in on the cage, he's always always always asleep on the ground. When he gets bothered by the other chicks or I try to pick him up he always gets very feisty. I'm not sure what this means but it breaks my heart :( I feel so bad for my little guys.
Poor Peeta and Jacob! I just want them to be okay. The thought of either of them dying is just way too sad :(
11:50 pm
Sorry I haven't posted again! Sooo much has been happening this weekend it's so hard to keep up!(it was prom weekend)
So since Bella hatched on Friday I've had 3 more chicks hatch!! Now there is Moe, Bella, Hermione, Peeta, and Jacob! They're all sooo adorable! Jacob actually just hatched this morning while I was still at my friends house. My parents and I had to really help out with his hatching though.
He made a pip in his shell Friday night, late at night, and Hermione was pipping too. (Pipping is basically when the chick begins to make cracks in the shell, starting to come out.) So I went to bed and in the morning I woke up to find two chicks had hatched! But it wasn't Hermione and Jacob like I had expected. It was Hermione and Peeta! This was startling because none of us had seen a crack on him. But Jacob had made no progress, and in fact, in the tiny little hole where he had pipped, it had turned a dark yellow color. So I went about my prom business, stopping in to see any kind of progress...and there was none. So my dad and I did a lot of research about helping chicks getting out of their shells and when to do it and then we proceeded to help little Jacob.
I took a q-tip and wet it with water and starting wetting the membrane that was showing. Then I peeled off a little of the shell will some tweezers. I wrapped the egg with some warm, wet paper towel so that the rest of the membrane would be easily broken by the chicks beak when it was time to come out.
Then I had to go to prom:( so I couldn't do anything more to help the little guy out. Luckily my parents helped him hatch, and now he's doing alright.
But then today I noticed one of his feet all his toes curl inward, instead of straight, so he has a hard time walking. I looked it up and I found that you can make them little cardboard booties to fix this problem.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/51112/chick-with-curled-toes
That's the link with a picture of the booties, if you scroll down.
Then there's Peeta who I'm worried about as well. He won't open his eyes anymore, I'm afraid that the others may have pecked his eyes, or I found that some chicks have conjunctivitis. Because his eyes aren't open I worry that he doesn't find water or food. And since he can't find water or food, his energy levels are way down. Every time I look in on the cage, he's always always always asleep on the ground. When he gets bothered by the other chicks or I try to pick him up he always gets very feisty. I'm not sure what this means but it breaks my heart :( I feel so bad for my little guys.
Poor Peeta and Jacob! I just want them to be okay. The thought of either of them dying is just way too sad :(
Friday, May 10, 2013
Entry #40: My Little Babiessss
5/10/13
4:03pm
It's here!!! THEY'RE here!
My little chickiesss:) :) :) well only two so far, but I'm really really hoping for some more (fingers crossed).
Moe hatched last night, and Bella hatched this afternoon!
So last night I came home from school and watched my peeping little eggs for a long time, but still no movement, no cracks in the shells....nothing! I was disappointed but I knew that they would be coming within a few days..I just never thought a few hours!
Anyways, after having watched them for sooo long, I decided, nothing is gonna happen, they're not hatching until tomorrow or the next day. (Side note: chicks are supposed to hatch at exactly 21 days after fertilization, but that's only with perfect humidity and temperature. Since both of those fluctuated in my incubators, the chicks can come out sooner or later than 21 days.) So I left to go to my boyfriend's house to do some dinner and catch up on homework. We had dinner, I reviewed for a test, and I was about to get some water when I decided to check my phone. And oddly my mom was calling at that exact moment. And this was pretty much how our phone call went:
Me: Hey mom what's u-
Mom: OH MY GOD GABI THERE IS A CHICK YOU HAVE TO GET HERE RIGHT NOW
Me: Wait.....like a chick, as in, chicken?!?!
Mom: YES OH MY GOD IT'S JUST THERE IN THE INCUBATOR
Me: Wait REALLY?!?!?!?
Mom: YES OH MY GOD COME HERE NOW.
And that was the first phone call.
So I uprooted Gareth (my boyfriend) from his comfy spot and I swear he was moving at sloth pace. All I wanted to do was race home and see my first little guy and I was out the door in no time.
But then I waited. And I stood out there and it seemed like 92837589273 hours had gone by and then I looked inside and Gareth is filling up his water bottle. And he's putting on his shoes. And I felt like he was writing a novel inside or something but man he was wayy less excited than I was. I was smiling so hard that I had to pull my cheeks down because it hurt (just got all 4 wisdom teeth out remember).
So the car ride seemed like we were taking a trip to Narnia. We hit both red lights and all I could think was: man this car ride is so much shorter usually...right?
We got home and I think I opened the door before we actually came to a full stop and I Usain Bolted into the house into my room and sure enough there was my little guy.
Moe:)
4:03pm
It's here!!! THEY'RE here!
My little chickiesss:) :) :) well only two so far, but I'm really really hoping for some more (fingers crossed).
Moe hatched last night, and Bella hatched this afternoon!
So last night I came home from school and watched my peeping little eggs for a long time, but still no movement, no cracks in the shells....nothing! I was disappointed but I knew that they would be coming within a few days..I just never thought a few hours!
Anyways, after having watched them for sooo long, I decided, nothing is gonna happen, they're not hatching until tomorrow or the next day. (Side note: chicks are supposed to hatch at exactly 21 days after fertilization, but that's only with perfect humidity and temperature. Since both of those fluctuated in my incubators, the chicks can come out sooner or later than 21 days.) So I left to go to my boyfriend's house to do some dinner and catch up on homework. We had dinner, I reviewed for a test, and I was about to get some water when I decided to check my phone. And oddly my mom was calling at that exact moment. And this was pretty much how our phone call went:
Me: Hey mom what's u-
Mom: OH MY GOD GABI THERE IS A CHICK YOU HAVE TO GET HERE RIGHT NOW
Me: Wait.....like a chick, as in, chicken?!?!
Mom: YES OH MY GOD IT'S JUST THERE IN THE INCUBATOR
Me: Wait REALLY?!?!?!?
Mom: YES OH MY GOD COME HERE NOW.
And that was the first phone call.
So I uprooted Gareth (my boyfriend) from his comfy spot and I swear he was moving at sloth pace. All I wanted to do was race home and see my first little guy and I was out the door in no time.
But then I waited. And I stood out there and it seemed like 92837589273 hours had gone by and then I looked inside and Gareth is filling up his water bottle. And he's putting on his shoes. And I felt like he was writing a novel inside or something but man he was wayy less excited than I was. I was smiling so hard that I had to pull my cheeks down because it hurt (just got all 4 wisdom teeth out remember).
So the car ride seemed like we were taking a trip to Narnia. We hit both red lights and all I could think was: man this car ride is so much shorter usually...right?
We got home and I think I opened the door before we actually came to a full stop and I Usain Bolted into the house into my room and sure enough there was my little guy.
Moe:)
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It's kinda hard to see what he really looks like since it was through the incubator but that's number one:)
So the next chicky to come out was Bella. And that was today! I noticed that she had a crack in her shell this morning, really small, but noticeably there. So I watcher over her for collectively, I'd say about 2 hours, because I wanted to get her hatching on film, and it's a very long process let me tell you. I took all the videos on my phone, and when I went back to look at all the little clips I had taken there were about 60-70 videos. I went through each and every one of them and I'm going to combine them all for my final project to show beginning to end of a chick hatching. This is the last video of Bella hatching.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Entry #39: JEEPERS CREEPERS. WHERE'D YA GET THOSE PEEPERS?!
5/8/13
11:09 pm
YEAH SORRY I'M SO EXCITED.
I'll stop with the caps now but OH MY GOD. (okay there's gonna be lots of caps) My chicks started peeping tonight!! :) :) :)
I was laying on my bed minding my own business, and my mom had guests in the house so she put the dogs in her room. And the doorway to her room is right across the hall from mine. So the dogs had been there for a little and they started whimpering. And their whimpers sound like peeping so I jumped up with a start and start at the incubators, which are across the room, and I heard nothing. Then I heard my doggies whimpering again and I got sooo disappointed.
And I realized a huge knot had formed in my stomach of excitement because guys...I've been working on this project for 3 weeks now! How can I not get excited?! Answer: I can't not get excited. You follow?
So I'm sitting there all disappointed and glum and wah :( my chicks weren't peeping yet.
WRONG.
I hear a faint peep, just as I hear my mom say "byyye thanks for coming!" to the last guests of the party she had.
I don't even know how fast I lept across the room, but it was a straight leap. Not even several steps. Just a huge leap across my room. And I press my ear up against the incubator and I listen. And all I could hear was my mom doing the dishes in the kitchen, and the wind blowing outside.
And I listen.
AND THEN BAM WHAM SLAM. No actually it was just the faintest little peep ever.
But it was there!!! Right there! Right in that little box that I'd had in my room for yes, 19 days now. And then peep peep peep peep peep. And I swear my face looked like a fat child who had just walked into a candy shop. My jaw dropped in disbelief. I could feel the tears welling up in the corners of my eyes from sheer joy, and my heart just melt at all the little peepers I heard in that incubator. All my little peepers in there.
Because yes guys. They are peeping. And yes guys. They are alllll mine :)
Welllll...for the remainder of this WISE project that is:( (we'll cross that bridge when we get there though.)
Anyways! The very first thing I did after I knew they were peeping? What any sensible person does when they have such big and exciting my-eggs-peep kind of news....I tell my mom of course!
"Mooommmmmy we have new guests in our house!" and I can just feel myself smirking and grinning and beaming and everything in between.
"OH MY GOD NO WAY!!!!" Was my moms appropriate reaction as she sped down the hallway from my kitchen into my room and on the floor right next to the incubator within seconds. Watch out Usain Bolt.
So she sat and listened until......peep. And then she dropped from being on all fours to laying on her back on my floor in disbelief. It was pretty funny to watch. She couldn't even speak she was so flabbergasted (what a word huh?) and so luckily my 21st century, technologically addicted teenage girl, role came into play, and I whipped out my iPhone and recorded her reaction, so all of the internet can behold (sorry mom!)
11:09 pm
YEAH SORRY I'M SO EXCITED.
I'll stop with the caps now but OH MY GOD. (okay there's gonna be lots of caps) My chicks started peeping tonight!! :) :) :)
I was laying on my bed minding my own business, and my mom had guests in the house so she put the dogs in her room. And the doorway to her room is right across the hall from mine. So the dogs had been there for a little and they started whimpering. And their whimpers sound like peeping so I jumped up with a start and start at the incubators, which are across the room, and I heard nothing. Then I heard my doggies whimpering again and I got sooo disappointed.
And I realized a huge knot had formed in my stomach of excitement because guys...I've been working on this project for 3 weeks now! How can I not get excited?! Answer: I can't not get excited. You follow?
So I'm sitting there all disappointed and glum and wah :( my chicks weren't peeping yet.
WRONG.
I hear a faint peep, just as I hear my mom say "byyye thanks for coming!" to the last guests of the party she had.
I don't even know how fast I lept across the room, but it was a straight leap. Not even several steps. Just a huge leap across my room. And I press my ear up against the incubator and I listen. And all I could hear was my mom doing the dishes in the kitchen, and the wind blowing outside.
And I listen.
AND THEN BAM WHAM SLAM. No actually it was just the faintest little peep ever.
But it was there!!! Right there! Right in that little box that I'd had in my room for yes, 19 days now. And then peep peep peep peep peep. And I swear my face looked like a fat child who had just walked into a candy shop. My jaw dropped in disbelief. I could feel the tears welling up in the corners of my eyes from sheer joy, and my heart just melt at all the little peepers I heard in that incubator. All my little peepers in there.
Because yes guys. They are peeping. And yes guys. They are alllll mine :)
Welllll...for the remainder of this WISE project that is:( (we'll cross that bridge when we get there though.)
Anyways! The very first thing I did after I knew they were peeping? What any sensible person does when they have such big and exciting my-eggs-peep kind of news....I tell my mom of course!
"Mooommmmmy we have new guests in our house!" and I can just feel myself smirking and grinning and beaming and everything in between.
"OH MY GOD NO WAY!!!!" Was my moms appropriate reaction as she sped down the hallway from my kitchen into my room and on the floor right next to the incubator within seconds. Watch out Usain Bolt.
So she sat and listened until......peep. And then she dropped from being on all fours to laying on her back on my floor in disbelief. It was pretty funny to watch. She couldn't even speak she was so flabbergasted (what a word huh?) and so luckily my 21st century, technologically addicted teenage girl, role came into play, and I whipped out my iPhone and recorded her reaction, so all of the internet can behold (sorry mom!)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Entry #38: Approaching the Hatching!
5/7/13
10:12pm
So my eggs should be hatching this week:) Friday...hopefully not Saturday that's prom! If they hatch Friday I'll be able to come home and help them hatch and stuff. My teachers are not gonna be pleased with me since I had to miss 3 days of school to get my wisdom teeth out.....yikes.
So according to research I've done the chicks should be peeping in their eggs soon! That's the final step before they hatch! They're gonna be soooo cute:) I can't wait!
I've upped the humidity from 50% to around 70% so that they have an easier time coming out of their shells! The egg shells soak up the moisture from the air and when the chicks hatch the shell will be much easier to break through!
I'm verrrry excited:)
10:12pm
So my eggs should be hatching this week:) Friday...hopefully not Saturday that's prom! If they hatch Friday I'll be able to come home and help them hatch and stuff. My teachers are not gonna be pleased with me since I had to miss 3 days of school to get my wisdom teeth out.....yikes.
So according to research I've done the chicks should be peeping in their eggs soon! That's the final step before they hatch! They're gonna be soooo cute:) I can't wait!
I've upped the humidity from 50% to around 70% so that they have an easier time coming out of their shells! The egg shells soak up the moisture from the air and when the chicks hatch the shell will be much easier to break through!
I'm verrrry excited:)
Entry #37: Remembering those we lost
5/7/13
9:15pm
Hi guys!
Sorry my posts are a little irregular. I had my wisdom teeth a few days ago and I've been pretty under the weather:(
Anyways I have some pictures of Curly and Dumbledore
So that's Curly as you can see. I tried to do my best in the picture to show you guys, but he has a lot of spotting or discoloration happening all over his shell. I'm not sure if that's related to the fact that he died or not, but I'm seeing it on a few of the eggs that are currently in the incubator, so I'm a little worried.
This is Curly and Dumbledore side by side, and something I found interesting about them was the fact that Curly's egg seems to be quite a bit bigger than Dumbledore. As I mentioned before Dumbledore is the egg that just didn't get fertilized at all. So I'm wondering...do eggs grow with the embryo? Because I thought that the egg just stayed the same size the whole time!
Interesting.....
9:15pm
Hi guys!
Sorry my posts are a little irregular. I had my wisdom teeth a few days ago and I've been pretty under the weather:(
Anyways I have some pictures of Curly and Dumbledore
Interesting.....
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Entry #36: Catch Up
5/5/13
8:39pm
WOW. This final project date is creeping up really really fast! It's May 30th for those of you who didn't know, which seems like it's far away......it isn't. I gotta get cracking.
Tonight I'm going to make a list of what things I need from Lowe's and then tomorrow I hope my dad and I will go down and get the materials to make the pen for the little chicks, which shouldn't be too hard to make.
On another side note, Curly has passed away. Over the weekend we started smelling a foul smell from the incubator and my parents concluded one of the eggs was rotting. At first we all thought it was Dumbledore, but it was actually Curly:( I'm not sure what happened at all but when I carefully sniffed (and resniffed) every single egg, it was definitely Curly.
I really didn't think I could muster up the courage to just toss Dumbledore and Curly away, but the smell was so overwhelming I had to shut up my motherly instinct, to never give up, over the eggs, and I placed them in an egg carton and then left a note with them telling my parents that I didn't know what to do with them.
Thank god for parents because if I had been the one who had to "dispose" of the eggs I probably would've had a little funeral for them and made my parents and maybe my friends gather around my two lost souls:(
Now maybe I'm going a little overboard? But I'm not. It's not easy just being like "oh hey sorry ya didn't make it little guy next time around!" no. It doesn't work like that. You feel sad! I feel sad! So yeah, thank goodness that I could just leave them on the counter and have them be gone the next morning because I just don't have the heart yet:(
8:39pm
WOW. This final project date is creeping up really really fast! It's May 30th for those of you who didn't know, which seems like it's far away......it isn't. I gotta get cracking.
Tonight I'm going to make a list of what things I need from Lowe's and then tomorrow I hope my dad and I will go down and get the materials to make the pen for the little chicks, which shouldn't be too hard to make.
On another side note, Curly has passed away. Over the weekend we started smelling a foul smell from the incubator and my parents concluded one of the eggs was rotting. At first we all thought it was Dumbledore, but it was actually Curly:( I'm not sure what happened at all but when I carefully sniffed (and resniffed) every single egg, it was definitely Curly.
I really didn't think I could muster up the courage to just toss Dumbledore and Curly away, but the smell was so overwhelming I had to shut up my motherly instinct, to never give up, over the eggs, and I placed them in an egg carton and then left a note with them telling my parents that I didn't know what to do with them.
Thank god for parents because if I had been the one who had to "dispose" of the eggs I probably would've had a little funeral for them and made my parents and maybe my friends gather around my two lost souls:(
Now maybe I'm going a little overboard? But I'm not. It's not easy just being like "oh hey sorry ya didn't make it little guy next time around!" no. It doesn't work like that. You feel sad! I feel sad! So yeah, thank goodness that I could just leave them on the counter and have them be gone the next morning because I just don't have the heart yet:(
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Entry #34: Macro research and Warning Graphic Photo!!
4/30/13
1:25pm
So I've been doing some research about how chickens are raised around the world, and in the many different ways that they are raised, and some w
ays are pretty gruesome. It makes me want to be vegetarian actually. I went onto PETA's site, and saw some really horrific pictures and read some awful facts about chickens and chicks, which made me really sad :(
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx
That's the URL of the site that I visited of PETA's. I learned that male chicks are useless to chicken factories because they don't produce eggs, and they're too small to produce any meat, so every year millions of them are tossed into trash bags and suffocated or thrown (while still alive) into a high speed grinder called a macerator.
This is a picture of chicks in a macerator. It's very very upsetting. At least it was to me.
It's so saddening :(
As well as this Mr. Reiff
1:25pm
So I've been doing some research about how chickens are raised around the world, and in the many different ways that they are raised, and some w
ays are pretty gruesome. It makes me want to be vegetarian actually. I went onto PETA's site, and saw some really horrific pictures and read some awful facts about chickens and chicks, which made me really sad :(
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx
That's the URL of the site that I visited of PETA's. I learned that male chicks are useless to chicken factories because they don't produce eggs, and they're too small to produce any meat, so every year millions of them are tossed into trash bags and suffocated or thrown (while still alive) into a high speed grinder called a macerator.
It's so saddening :(
As well as this Mr. Reiff
Entry #35: Chickens at Sea
5/1/13
1:38pm
Right now I feel so dedicated to my Wise project. It's currently sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and warm out (rare weather for Ithaca) annnd I'm sitting in the library in the computer lab with a guy complaining how he has no love life, another screaming at a computer game, and 3 very studious silent kids. And all I want to do is go outside and lay in the sun.
But I'm here.
So this is my macroresearch for today! I tried to find something about raising chickens on a boat, and I actually found a girls Nature Diary online. She lives on a yacht called Yacht Mollymawk, and she tried to raise chickens on a boat...unsuccessfully. Her friend gave her live chicks, but two turned out to be roosters, which the family didn't want, and the other one was very agressive. It's a very interesting piece, sort of a story, and I enjoyed reading it.
http://www.yachtmollymawk.com/2009/10/chickens/
There's the link to the website I found it on. Safe to say this method of chicken raising, although not as successful, is much easier to read about than yesterday.
On that note: Yesterday my dad and I went to Wegman's to get some chinese food for dinner...and I stood in front of the General Tso's chicken for a while and just stared. You guys probably don't know that I absolutely LOVE General Tso's chicken.....but I couldn't eat it. It's not that I didn't want it, because I wanted it trust me, I just couldn't do it. Its the first time in my life where I just could NOT eat something. Besides beets. I just really cannot eat beets either, but that's a different story. Anyways...I don't know how long it will be but I showed my dad the video and he said we should start getting free range chickens instead of the regular ones in the supermarket. So that's a nice change, but I just don't know when I'll be able to eat chicken again.
So I guess I'm vegetarian? Thanks for that video Mr. Reiff :(
1:38pm
Right now I feel so dedicated to my Wise project. It's currently sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and warm out (rare weather for Ithaca) annnd I'm sitting in the library in the computer lab with a guy complaining how he has no love life, another screaming at a computer game, and 3 very studious silent kids. And all I want to do is go outside and lay in the sun.
But I'm here.
So this is my macroresearch for today! I tried to find something about raising chickens on a boat, and I actually found a girls Nature Diary online. She lives on a yacht called Yacht Mollymawk, and she tried to raise chickens on a boat...unsuccessfully. Her friend gave her live chicks, but two turned out to be roosters, which the family didn't want, and the other one was very agressive. It's a very interesting piece, sort of a story, and I enjoyed reading it.
http://www.yachtmollymawk.com/2009/10/chickens/
There's the link to the website I found it on. Safe to say this method of chicken raising, although not as successful, is much easier to read about than yesterday.
On that note: Yesterday my dad and I went to Wegman's to get some chinese food for dinner...and I stood in front of the General Tso's chicken for a while and just stared. You guys probably don't know that I absolutely LOVE General Tso's chicken.....but I couldn't eat it. It's not that I didn't want it, because I wanted it trust me, I just couldn't do it. Its the first time in my life where I just could NOT eat something. Besides beets. I just really cannot eat beets either, but that's a different story. Anyways...I don't know how long it will be but I showed my dad the video and he said we should start getting free range chickens instead of the regular ones in the supermarket. So that's a nice change, but I just don't know when I'll be able to eat chicken again.
So I guess I'm vegetarian? Thanks for that video Mr. Reiff :(
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Entry #33: Survival of the Fittest
4/29/13
10:31 pm
Last night I candled the eggs again and I saw movement in the egg!! That was veryy cool and exciting! It makes it even more real that there's little developing chicks in there! It also makes me feel like I'm not just wasting my time flipping eggs! So that's a sweet relief.
Anyways as I was looking through the eggs I wrote down what the eggs looked like on the inside and this is what I saw:
1. Harry - movement
2. Ron - veins, no movement no dark spot
3. Hermione - movement
4. Bella - movement
5. Edward - veins
6. Katniss - veins
7. Peeta - veins
8. Jacob - movement
9. Dumbledore - didn't make it:(
10. Larry - dark spot, no movement
11. Curly - dark spot no movement
12. Moe - movement
So I'm assuming that the ones I saw movement and a dark spot in are going to hatch. I'm not sure what it means if I don't see the dark spot, it could be that I just can't find it at this point and they will still hatch as well. So so far all is going pretty well, but on the nights I can't see anything inside the eggs I get pretty nervous, so maybe I should stop candling them so often to calm my nerves!!
10:31 pm
Last night I candled the eggs again and I saw movement in the egg!! That was veryy cool and exciting! It makes it even more real that there's little developing chicks in there! It also makes me feel like I'm not just wasting my time flipping eggs! So that's a sweet relief.
Anyways as I was looking through the eggs I wrote down what the eggs looked like on the inside and this is what I saw:
1. Harry - movement
2. Ron - veins, no movement no dark spot
3. Hermione - movement
4. Bella - movement
5. Edward - veins
6. Katniss - veins
7. Peeta - veins
8. Jacob - movement
9. Dumbledore - didn't make it:(
10. Larry - dark spot, no movement
11. Curly - dark spot no movement
12. Moe - movement
So I'm assuming that the ones I saw movement and a dark spot in are going to hatch. I'm not sure what it means if I don't see the dark spot, it could be that I just can't find it at this point and they will still hatch as well. So so far all is going pretty well, but on the nights I can't see anything inside the eggs I get pretty nervous, so maybe I should stop candling them so often to calm my nerves!!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Entry #32: Candling, RIP Dumbledore
4/21/13
11:10 pm
OH MY GOSH. Candling is the cooooolest thing ever! It's so simple too!
Basically what I do is that I take the Flashlight app on my phone (crazy that I can do this with an app) and I put it behind the egg while I'm holding it and I can see the silhouette of the chick inside. It's crazy!
Usually this technique is done with a candle (or flashlight) hence the name. But I decided to just try my phone app and it really worked!!
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Alright I'm not really sure why the photo is upside down and I'm not sure how to fix it but I made it extra large so you guys can clearly see the dark spot in the middle. That right there is little Peeta in there:)
I couldn't be more thrilled about how they're all doing. Some eggs I could only see veins running throughout them, but most I could see the little dark spot, and an even darker spot within the dark spot which is there eye developing!! Suuuuper cool.
Sadly, only one egg has nothing inside it, no veins, no dark spot, and that's Dumbledore. Poor little guy didn't even develop. Maybe he wasn't even fertilized. Who knows, but I'm still keeping him in the incubator, I don't know if I have the heart to just toss him out.
I am a little nervous about the ones that I don't see the dark spot in, but all the rest at least have veins so that is a good sign! I need to determine which ones have the dark spot and which ones don't and then record that in my blog to see which ones hatch and which ones don't. Or which ones hatch later, because that's also a possibility.
So now I'm definitely down to 11 little chickies. Which, yeah I knew that all of them wouldn't survive...I just hope Dumbledore is the only one to go:(
RIP Little guy.
11:10 pm
OH MY GOSH. Candling is the cooooolest thing ever! It's so simple too!
Basically what I do is that I take the Flashlight app on my phone (crazy that I can do this with an app) and I put it behind the egg while I'm holding it and I can see the silhouette of the chick inside. It's crazy!
Usually this technique is done with a candle (or flashlight) hence the name. But I decided to just try my phone app and it really worked!!
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So that is me candling the egg. You can't really see the silhouette in that photo. That egg is Katniss, and I did notice some veins, but I didn't see the dark silhouette spot of the embryo developing so I'm a little nervous about her.
I couldn't be more thrilled about how they're all doing. Some eggs I could only see veins running throughout them, but most I could see the little dark spot, and an even darker spot within the dark spot which is there eye developing!! Suuuuper cool.
Sadly, only one egg has nothing inside it, no veins, no dark spot, and that's Dumbledore. Poor little guy didn't even develop. Maybe he wasn't even fertilized. Who knows, but I'm still keeping him in the incubator, I don't know if I have the heart to just toss him out.
I am a little nervous about the ones that I don't see the dark spot in, but all the rest at least have veins so that is a good sign! I need to determine which ones have the dark spot and which ones don't and then record that in my blog to see which ones hatch and which ones don't. Or which ones hatch later, because that's also a possibility.
So now I'm definitely down to 11 little chickies. Which, yeah I knew that all of them wouldn't survive...I just hope Dumbledore is the only one to go:(
RIP Little guy.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Entry #31 Checking Up
4/21/13
6:40pm
So the temperature seems to be leveling off now. Sometimes I have to put tape over a hole I've cut into the sides of the incubator. To maintain the temperature at around 100 degrees, I had to cut some holes into the side, and then if I want to make the incubator temperature higher I cover them with tape. So that's what my dad and I have been doing lately, checking up on them and such. When I'm not home my dad peeks in every so often to make sure everything is going alright.
I have to turn the eggs over 3 times a day, I do this at 8 am, 3 pm, and at night around 9.
Pretty soon I'll have to build the structure where they will be in when they are chicks, and a few weeks after they are hatched I'll be able to move them outside to the coop, which I also have to build.
6:40pm
So the temperature seems to be leveling off now. Sometimes I have to put tape over a hole I've cut into the sides of the incubator. To maintain the temperature at around 100 degrees, I had to cut some holes into the side, and then if I want to make the incubator temperature higher I cover them with tape. So that's what my dad and I have been doing lately, checking up on them and such. When I'm not home my dad peeks in every so often to make sure everything is going alright.
I have to turn the eggs over 3 times a day, I do this at 8 am, 3 pm, and at night around 9.
Pretty soon I'll have to build the structure where they will be in when they are chicks, and a few weeks after they are hatched I'll be able to move them outside to the coop, which I also have to build.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Entry #29: Incubator
4/20/13
2:29pm
So in this blog post I will in detail show how I made and set up my incubator!
Step one:
Gathered my materials.
I got two Styrofoam coolers, two pictures with glass frames, two extension cords, two humidity and temperature regulators (only one is pictured), two 25 watt bulbs, some snazzy looking duct tape, and 2 lightbulb to outlet adapters!
Step 2:
I took out the glass from the picture frames and I cut a big hole so that they would fit in the lids of the
Styrofoam coolers.
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This step creates a window so I can look inside of the incubator to check on humidity and temperature.
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Step 5: I got the eggs.
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Now every so often I check on the temperature and humidity!
2:29pm
So in this blog post I will in detail show how I made and set up my incubator!
Step one:
Gathered my materials.
I got two Styrofoam coolers, two pictures with glass frames, two extension cords, two humidity and temperature regulators (only one is pictured), two 25 watt bulbs, some snazzy looking duct tape, and 2 lightbulb to outlet adapters!
Step 2:
I took out the glass from the picture frames and I cut a big hole so that they would fit in the lids of the
Styrofoam coolers.
.JPG)
This step creates a window so I can look inside of the incubator to check on humidity and temperature.
Step 3: I put a hole in the bottom of the incubator so that the lightbulb would fit through, and put aluminum foil around the lightbulb so that the heat would be spread out more easily in the incubator.
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Step 4: I put the thermometer and humidity regulator into the incubator and a sponge and bowl with some water in it to raise the humidity.
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Step 6: I put the eggs into the incubator.
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As you can see I took the digital thermometor out of the incubator because it's results we're waaay off. I put in 2 mercury thermometers and went to Agway to get a new hydrometer (humidity regulator).
Entry #28: Egg Update
4/20/13
2:20pm
So the chicks are here and all set up in their incubators and the temperature is stabilized at around 100 degrees and the humidity in both of them is 54% and 60% which is also good since they need to be in the 50-60% range!
So all is well and nice and I'm not as nervous anymore, although I do check on them pretty much every time I walk by them. My next few posts will have allll the wonderful pictures I took while I made the incubators and then what the set up looks like and all that good stuff.
P.S Their official names are Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Larry, Moe, Curly, Peeta, Katniss, Bella, Jacob, and Edward.
I know. I'm original.
2:20pm
So the chicks are here and all set up in their incubators and the temperature is stabilized at around 100 degrees and the humidity in both of them is 54% and 60% which is also good since they need to be in the 50-60% range!
So all is well and nice and I'm not as nervous anymore, although I do check on them pretty much every time I walk by them. My next few posts will have allll the wonderful pictures I took while I made the incubators and then what the set up looks like and all that good stuff.
P.S Their official names are Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Larry, Moe, Curly, Peeta, Katniss, Bella, Jacob, and Edward.
I know. I'm original.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Entry #27: The Night Before
4/18/13
10:17pm
So today I have spent the entire day assembling both incubators, getting everything prepared for the arrival of my eggs tomorrow!
And I put in the bowl of water for the humidity and the thermometer to measure the temperature and the light for heat.......and the temperature reads 120 degrees. WHAT. NO. It's supposed to be 100 degrees! I'm gonna end up frying them.
So my thermometer and hygrometer (humidity measurer) are reaaaaallllyyy s l o w at picking up on temperature and humidity changes and I'm having little freak outs and my parents are helping me but I'm kind of stressed!!....I never thought I'd actually be getting stressed about chicken eggs.
On a lighter note I've decided on a few named for my lil chickies. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Larry, Moe, Curly...Dumbledore is probably going to be one too. Maybe some Frodo? Gandalf? I was going to name one after my boyfriend but then it'd be a small tragedy if it died.....so I decided against it.
So now my dad and mom anad I are just sitting...watching...waiting for these thermometers. They're slow and really aggravating and I'm going off of my old fashioned mercury thermometer and it reads around 100 degrees while the digital thermometers read 108. What. WHY.
Ugh.
Anyways equilibrium, if you're out there please come soon!
Sincerely,
Gabi
10:17pm
So today I have spent the entire day assembling both incubators, getting everything prepared for the arrival of my eggs tomorrow!
And I put in the bowl of water for the humidity and the thermometer to measure the temperature and the light for heat.......and the temperature reads 120 degrees. WHAT. NO. It's supposed to be 100 degrees! I'm gonna end up frying them.
So my thermometer and hygrometer (humidity measurer) are reaaaaallllyyy s l o w at picking up on temperature and humidity changes and I'm having little freak outs and my parents are helping me but I'm kind of stressed!!....I never thought I'd actually be getting stressed about chicken eggs.
On a lighter note I've decided on a few named for my lil chickies. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Larry, Moe, Curly...Dumbledore is probably going to be one too. Maybe some Frodo? Gandalf? I was going to name one after my boyfriend but then it'd be a small tragedy if it died.....so I decided against it.
So now my dad and mom anad I are just sitting...watching...waiting for these thermometers. They're slow and really aggravating and I'm going off of my old fashioned mercury thermometer and it reads around 100 degrees while the digital thermometers read 108. What. WHY.
Ugh.
Anyways equilibrium, if you're out there please come soon!
Sincerely,
Gabi
Entry #26: Nerves
4/17/13
1:49pm
As this thing gets closer and closer I'm actually getting kind of nervous! Reading about all the things that could go wrong, not turning the egg, drowning...there's just so much that could go wrong if I don't pay close enough attention to the eggs!
1:49pm
As this thing gets closer and closer I'm actually getting kind of nervous! Reading about all the things that could go wrong, not turning the egg, drowning...there's just so much that could go wrong if I don't pay close enough attention to the eggs!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Entry #25: Friday's Eggs!
4/17/13
1:17 pm
So I've recently had some problems getting these eggs! While emailing this guy from Cornell who said I could get the eggs, after he sent me an email saying I need to make an appointment to pick up the eggs from the poultry farm, he stopped emailing. So I had a little bit of a worry, not really panic, but just worried, and for 4 days he just didn't email me back. And of course that was very very frustrating and I decided that on the 5th day, if he didn't email me back then I would just go to the poultry farm myself, without any appointment. But then guess what?! He emailed me back! And he said that I could come in this Friday at 9:30 am and collect the eggs! Well 9:30 means that I have to miss some school, but it also means I can sleep in hehe. And I really don't mind missing school for this!
Anyways that's my latest update! I'm super excited that in 21 days from this Friday I should have little cute chicks:)
Now I'm going to research all the requirements of what a chicken incubator should be, temperature, humidity wise, and then set it up for that!
1:17 pm
So I've recently had some problems getting these eggs! While emailing this guy from Cornell who said I could get the eggs, after he sent me an email saying I need to make an appointment to pick up the eggs from the poultry farm, he stopped emailing. So I had a little bit of a worry, not really panic, but just worried, and for 4 days he just didn't email me back. And of course that was very very frustrating and I decided that on the 5th day, if he didn't email me back then I would just go to the poultry farm myself, without any appointment. But then guess what?! He emailed me back! And he said that I could come in this Friday at 9:30 am and collect the eggs! Well 9:30 means that I have to miss some school, but it also means I can sleep in hehe. And I really don't mind missing school for this!
Anyways that's my latest update! I'm super excited that in 21 days from this Friday I should have little cute chicks:)
Now I'm going to research all the requirements of what a chicken incubator should be, temperature, humidity wise, and then set it up for that!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Entry #24: Disrupting my Comfort Zone
A. For Brian Grazer he thinks that disrupting his comfort zone is the best way to get better. He gets a physical and mental challenge by disrupting his lifestyle and he believes he grows because of the disruption. He believes that by disrupting himself he will get better than he was before. He believes you need it later in life if you ever want to grow from who you are.
B. I have been disrupted lately actually. I thought that because I have been emailing someone at Cornell about collecting the eggs, it would be easy to get the eggs. But the guy who I've been emailing suddenly stopped emailing back, and I still don't know where to make my appointment to get the eggs. I thought I would have the eggs by now but I don't. So I'm going to finish off the incubators and then my mom and I are going to find the address of the Cornell poultry farm, even though we need an appointment to go.
C. This month I could meet with someone at the Cornell poultry farm to get the eggs, and a woman who is friends with my mom who owns chickens. I don't really know any "dream" people that I could meet with for chicken raising but I guess my hopes are the two people I mentioned before. Because without the eggs I have no project!
B. I have been disrupted lately actually. I thought that because I have been emailing someone at Cornell about collecting the eggs, it would be easy to get the eggs. But the guy who I've been emailing suddenly stopped emailing back, and I still don't know where to make my appointment to get the eggs. I thought I would have the eggs by now but I don't. So I'm going to finish off the incubators and then my mom and I are going to find the address of the Cornell poultry farm, even though we need an appointment to go.
C. This month I could meet with someone at the Cornell poultry farm to get the eggs, and a woman who is friends with my mom who owns chickens. I don't really know any "dream" people that I could meet with for chicken raising but I guess my hopes are the two people I mentioned before. Because without the eggs I have no project!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Entry #23: Eggs eggs eggs
4/10/13
9:31
Oh my goshhhhh I'm so impatient to get these eggs!! I want them so badly but it's proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I asked my mom if she could get me a contact for Cornell Poultry since the last time they updated their website was in 2002. An email, a number...fax? I wouldn't know how to fax so scratch that, but anything?! She said it would be easy for her to get a contact for them since she knows people in the Cornell Science Department so I'm crossing my fingers that she pulls through! But she's not texting me back right now so I may have to call her later today and remind her.
But I'm excited, and maybe you are too! I can't wait to get these eggs and put them in the incubator and have them hatch into cute little chicks! But I'm too ahead of myself so now all I can do is wait for them.
1:16pm
Wow that was a lot quicker than I thought it would be! My mom came through big time. A dozen fertile eggs are 10$!!! That's really way cheaper than I thought it would be! Apparently we can pick up the eggs by appointment at the Cornell Poultry Farm! I'll have to figure out where all that is! But I asked my mom when we could pick them up and I think we will be on Saturday! If we pick them up Saturday they will hatch around May 4th! That's much earlier than I expected but I'm very excited for it! I'll keep you all posted!
9:31
Oh my goshhhhh I'm so impatient to get these eggs!! I want them so badly but it's proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I asked my mom if she could get me a contact for Cornell Poultry since the last time they updated their website was in 2002. An email, a number...fax? I wouldn't know how to fax so scratch that, but anything?! She said it would be easy for her to get a contact for them since she knows people in the Cornell Science Department so I'm crossing my fingers that she pulls through! But she's not texting me back right now so I may have to call her later today and remind her.
But I'm excited, and maybe you are too! I can't wait to get these eggs and put them in the incubator and have them hatch into cute little chicks! But I'm too ahead of myself so now all I can do is wait for them.
1:16pm
Wow that was a lot quicker than I thought it would be! My mom came through big time. A dozen fertile eggs are 10$!!! That's really way cheaper than I thought it would be! Apparently we can pick up the eggs by appointment at the Cornell Poultry Farm! I'll have to figure out where all that is! But I asked my mom when we could pick them up and I think we will be on Saturday! If we pick them up Saturday they will hatch around May 4th! That's much earlier than I expected but I'm very excited for it! I'll keep you all posted!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Entry #22: Post Costa Rica
4/9/13
1:39pm
So yesterday I arrived at night from Costa Rica! It was an amazing trip, and I actually saw a surprising amount of chickens and chicken coops. When you're looking out for them you really notice them a lot more. There were chickens everywhere! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take pictures because I saw most coops in passing while in the car. But some were very makeshift coops and very strange looking.
Also the website for Cornell Poultry was last updated in 2002!! So that's not much help to me. I know they still exist because when I went to Cornell with my mom before I left and they said they got their eggs from Cornell Poultry! But finding a contact for them is going to be a little more difficult than I thought. I'll ask my mom tonight to see if she can get a number for them. I would like to get my eggs no later than by this Friday. But as well as this, I'm going on a college visit this Friday so that might not work either! I may have to push it to Saturday, in hopes that they're open on Saturday!
Anyways in some upcoming posts there should be pictures of me assembling the coops and the finished product! I'm in school so I can't do them now, but they'll be up soon enough!
1:39pm
So yesterday I arrived at night from Costa Rica! It was an amazing trip, and I actually saw a surprising amount of chickens and chicken coops. When you're looking out for them you really notice them a lot more. There were chickens everywhere! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take pictures because I saw most coops in passing while in the car. But some were very makeshift coops and very strange looking.
Also the website for Cornell Poultry was last updated in 2002!! So that's not much help to me. I know they still exist because when I went to Cornell with my mom before I left and they said they got their eggs from Cornell Poultry! But finding a contact for them is going to be a little more difficult than I thought. I'll ask my mom tonight to see if she can get a number for them. I would like to get my eggs no later than by this Friday. But as well as this, I'm going on a college visit this Friday so that might not work either! I may have to push it to Saturday, in hopes that they're open on Saturday!
Anyways in some upcoming posts there should be pictures of me assembling the coops and the finished product! I'm in school so I can't do them now, but they'll be up soon enough!
Entry #21: Pre Costa Rica!!!
3/26/13
1:29pm
So this Friday the 29th I will be leaving to go to Costa Rica for 10 days! I am soo excited. But that means I'll have to do all my journeling in a paper journal and then transfer them the day I get back. This also means I won't really be able to work on my project either.
Today I'm actually going to start making the incubator. I have the two Styrofoam coolers (one is huuuge) and I'll be cutting holes into the tops of them so I can see what's happening inside while the eggs incubate. I'll have to measure out the holes so I can go out to Big Lots or Wal-Mart and get two cheap photo frames. Then I'll take the glass out from the frames and put them onto the holes I cut in the coolers to make windows.
I still need to get the chicken wire to put inside it though, but I'm just going one step at a time. I should be able to get the incubators done before I leave for Costa Rica.
After I come back from Costa Rica I will contact the people I'm getting my chicken eggs from. I think this is going to be through Cornell Poultry.
1:29pm
So this Friday the 29th I will be leaving to go to Costa Rica for 10 days! I am soo excited. But that means I'll have to do all my journeling in a paper journal and then transfer them the day I get back. This also means I won't really be able to work on my project either.
Today I'm actually going to start making the incubator. I have the two Styrofoam coolers (one is huuuge) and I'll be cutting holes into the tops of them so I can see what's happening inside while the eggs incubate. I'll have to measure out the holes so I can go out to Big Lots or Wal-Mart and get two cheap photo frames. Then I'll take the glass out from the frames and put them onto the holes I cut in the coolers to make windows.
I still need to get the chicken wire to put inside it though, but I'm just going one step at a time. I should be able to get the incubators done before I leave for Costa Rica.
After I come back from Costa Rica I will contact the people I'm getting my chicken eggs from. I think this is going to be through Cornell Poultry.
Entry #20 Post Weill Hall
3/22/13
1:16
Oh my god what I saw yesterday in the Jonathan Butcher lab was soooo cool! The 3D printers, and the chicken embryos! Just everything was so incredibly cool!
I'll start from the beginning. Sorry some of this won't have anything to do with my project at all but it was just so cool I can't not share it!
So my dad and I were with a group of high school students from surrounding high schools who were in AP Biology classes. We got a quick tour of the entire lab section of the building which was cool in itself. But then we came across this guy who showed us the first 3D printer I would see in the day. That was neat, but the best party was what they were printing, and what it was made out of. The guy told us that he was printing ears. Yup. Like human ears. And they were made out of cartilage. My mind was blown. Have you ever heard of people just making drawings of ears online and then printing them out? Me either! (I'm super interested in this kind of thing if you haven't noticed) But that was only half of it. Not only can they print ears..they can print YOUR ear. If you were born with a birth defect that left you earless, or your ear got cut off for some reason, they can take a mold of your other ear, or project what the lost ear looked like, or would look like, and they will make YOUR ear. The very same one that's on your head. Like what? What is science these days?! Then a surgeon can take that ear..the very ear you may be missing..and they will sew it onto your head and bam. You have an ear where once you were earless. Mind. Blown. At least I was. I kind of still am too. I just think it's unheard of!
So that was only the first rotation. Then we switched groups and I went to the part of the lab that actually has to do with my WISE project. Chicken embryos.
There is a lady working in Weill working on cardiovascular and biological engineering, what I told you about yesterday, using chick embryos. So she gave us a really really long speech and told us everything that she did in the lab and research and so on. Then I saw another super cool thing. This lady had taken fertilized chick embryos and literally cracked them into a cup. I thought that would just kill them....it doesn't. I saw these chicken embryos only 3 days after fertilization, and boy was it weird and cool and nothing like I had ever seen before. After only 3 days, the chickens hearts are already beating. So in an incubator, in a cup, cracked, I saw the little tiny beating hearts of what could mature into a full grown chicken one day.
That's what it looks like after three days. The little cashew shaped thing in the middle is the little tiny, teeny heart. It was really cool. So one of the guys that I was touring the lab asked, "Hey, you can't grow these things into chickens right? They die after a while." Nope, he was wrong, you can grow a chicken out of it's shell, cracked in a cup. She said it'd be very difficult because at that stage in their lives they don't have a great immune system, so they'd be extremely prone to bacteria and virus's. Anything that could get inside the incubator, they could die. It'd be difficult, but not impossible at all. After a few days you'd need to add egg shell though. She kept explaining and said: Chicken embryos need calcium to develop their bone structures and feathers and really to develop. So there was an easy fix. All you had to do is take an egg shell and crush it up until it is essentially, egg shell dust. Then you just sprinkle that into the yolk and developing fetus when the time is right. Then you can see the entire thing develop outside of a shell. Again: mind blown. Could you imagine how cool that would be? Kind of gross..but cool. The feathers developing, the bones, legs, beak...like I said, gross but cool. She also said another way to look at developing fetus's of chickens would be to create a small hole in the top of the egg, like the picture below
Not as cool, but still pretty cool. I never knew you could do that. I'm definitely not gonna try either of those things with my project, but it's cool to see the alternate ways that you can raise chickens.
Then we switched stations again. The last station, like the first, doesn't really have anything to do with my project but it's still too cool not to tell.
I held a pigs aortic valve. Now, I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy (I'm obsessed) and I don't know how accurate it is
1:16
Oh my god what I saw yesterday in the Jonathan Butcher lab was soooo cool! The 3D printers, and the chicken embryos! Just everything was so incredibly cool!
I'll start from the beginning. Sorry some of this won't have anything to do with my project at all but it was just so cool I can't not share it!
So my dad and I were with a group of high school students from surrounding high schools who were in AP Biology classes. We got a quick tour of the entire lab section of the building which was cool in itself. But then we came across this guy who showed us the first 3D printer I would see in the day. That was neat, but the best party was what they were printing, and what it was made out of. The guy told us that he was printing ears. Yup. Like human ears. And they were made out of cartilage. My mind was blown. Have you ever heard of people just making drawings of ears online and then printing them out? Me either! (I'm super interested in this kind of thing if you haven't noticed) But that was only half of it. Not only can they print ears..they can print YOUR ear. If you were born with a birth defect that left you earless, or your ear got cut off for some reason, they can take a mold of your other ear, or project what the lost ear looked like, or would look like, and they will make YOUR ear. The very same one that's on your head. Like what? What is science these days?! Then a surgeon can take that ear..the very ear you may be missing..and they will sew it onto your head and bam. You have an ear where once you were earless. Mind. Blown. At least I was. I kind of still am too. I just think it's unheard of!
So that was only the first rotation. Then we switched groups and I went to the part of the lab that actually has to do with my WISE project. Chicken embryos.
There is a lady working in Weill working on cardiovascular and biological engineering, what I told you about yesterday, using chick embryos. So she gave us a really really long speech and told us everything that she did in the lab and research and so on. Then I saw another super cool thing. This lady had taken fertilized chick embryos and literally cracked them into a cup. I thought that would just kill them....it doesn't. I saw these chicken embryos only 3 days after fertilization, and boy was it weird and cool and nothing like I had ever seen before. After only 3 days, the chickens hearts are already beating. So in an incubator, in a cup, cracked, I saw the little tiny beating hearts of what could mature into a full grown chicken one day.
That's what it looks like after three days. The little cashew shaped thing in the middle is the little tiny, teeny heart. It was really cool. So one of the guys that I was touring the lab asked, "Hey, you can't grow these things into chickens right? They die after a while." Nope, he was wrong, you can grow a chicken out of it's shell, cracked in a cup. She said it'd be very difficult because at that stage in their lives they don't have a great immune system, so they'd be extremely prone to bacteria and virus's. Anything that could get inside the incubator, they could die. It'd be difficult, but not impossible at all. After a few days you'd need to add egg shell though. She kept explaining and said: Chicken embryos need calcium to develop their bone structures and feathers and really to develop. So there was an easy fix. All you had to do is take an egg shell and crush it up until it is essentially, egg shell dust. Then you just sprinkle that into the yolk and developing fetus when the time is right. Then you can see the entire thing develop outside of a shell. Again: mind blown. Could you imagine how cool that would be? Kind of gross..but cool. The feathers developing, the bones, legs, beak...like I said, gross but cool. She also said another way to look at developing fetus's of chickens would be to create a small hole in the top of the egg, like the picture below Not as cool, but still pretty cool. I never knew you could do that. I'm definitely not gonna try either of those things with my project, but it's cool to see the alternate ways that you can raise chickens.Then we switched stations again. The last station, like the first, doesn't really have anything to do with my project but it's still too cool not to tell.
I held a pigs aortic valve. Now, I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy (I'm obsessed) and I don't know how accurate it is
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Entry #19: Weill Hall Trip Tomorrow
3/20/13
1:20 pm
Alllllrighty so my mom brought home some Styrofoam coolers yesterday for my project. She also told me she has lamps for me, but no bulbs so I'll have to buy those myself. I have duct tape at home, but I think the thing I'm gonna need to really be careful when choosing is the thermometer/humidity regulator. It's supposed to be pretty accurate, and I want that since I don't want to mess anything up!
On a completely different note tomorrow I'm gonna be leaving school at about noon and go to Jonathan Butcher's Lab in Weill Hall at Cornell University with my mom, dad, and students that are coming in from a different high school. There we're going to going into a lab to see some experiment being done on chicken embryos, which fits perfectly with my WISE project! I'm not 100% what it's like, but I know that he does cardiovascular and developmental engineering using the chicken embryos! But he terminates the embryo 2 days before they develop central nervous systems so it's completely humane research. That's about all I know so far, but once I go I'm sure I'll have learned a ton more, and I'll be able to tell you a lot more about the whole experience! Here's the link my mom sent me about Jonathan Butcher and sort of what he does, and who he is, in case you wanted a little bit more knowledge of all that.
http://www.butcherlab.com/index.php?page=people&show=2
Another cool thing is I'm gonna see a 3D printer. That should be really awesome! Basically what it is, is a printer that prints actual inanimate objects from a digital model. Basically what you do is you create tons of layers of the blueprints of what you're trying to print, and then you put it into the printer. Usually this kind of technology is used to make jewelry, shoes, architecture, cars, and a lot of other fields. I thought this was the coolest thing ever! All you do is create it online, and then you can just have the printer create it for you! My dad also is looking forward to seeing that. I thought that the picture below kind of gets the point across of what one kind of printer looks like, and how to create the final product!
1:20 pm
Alllllrighty so my mom brought home some Styrofoam coolers yesterday for my project. She also told me she has lamps for me, but no bulbs so I'll have to buy those myself. I have duct tape at home, but I think the thing I'm gonna need to really be careful when choosing is the thermometer/humidity regulator. It's supposed to be pretty accurate, and I want that since I don't want to mess anything up!
On a completely different note tomorrow I'm gonna be leaving school at about noon and go to Jonathan Butcher's Lab in Weill Hall at Cornell University with my mom, dad, and students that are coming in from a different high school. There we're going to going into a lab to see some experiment being done on chicken embryos, which fits perfectly with my WISE project! I'm not 100% what it's like, but I know that he does cardiovascular and developmental engineering using the chicken embryos! But he terminates the embryo 2 days before they develop central nervous systems so it's completely humane research. That's about all I know so far, but once I go I'm sure I'll have learned a ton more, and I'll be able to tell you a lot more about the whole experience! Here's the link my mom sent me about Jonathan Butcher and sort of what he does, and who he is, in case you wanted a little bit more knowledge of all that.
http://www.butcherlab.com/index.php?page=people&show=2
Another cool thing is I'm gonna see a 3D printer. That should be really awesome! Basically what it is, is a printer that prints actual inanimate objects from a digital model. Basically what you do is you create tons of layers of the blueprints of what you're trying to print, and then you put it into the printer. Usually this kind of technology is used to make jewelry, shoes, architecture, cars, and a lot of other fields. I thought this was the coolest thing ever! All you do is create it online, and then you can just have the printer create it for you! My dad also is looking forward to seeing that. I thought that the picture below kind of gets the point across of what one kind of printer looks like, and how to create the final product!
Monday, March 18, 2013
Entry #18: The Power of Lists
3/18/13
1:35 pm
Another post! Two posts in one period this has got to be a record. This time it's all about the lists. I have a lot of lists to make though so this comes easy.
For example here's the materials I need, a list you guys have already seen:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)
A list in order of how much this will cost me (roughly):
-Styrofoam cooler = free
-Duct tape = $2.00
-25 watt bulbs and a lamp = $7.00
-Temperature and humidity monitor $10.00
-Bowl with a sponge in it = free
-Chicken wire = $10.00
-Clear piece of glass or plastic = either free or $5.00
so that's going to be more or less around 30 dollars. Then I have to figure out how much the chicken eggs will cost me and where I'm getting them from.
So far I'm at about $180 or so? Oh gosh that sounds like a lot:( I guess it's time to write a proposal for a grant!! And start doing some chores for my dad..fun...
I've asked my mom if she had any materials and sent her a list of them. I'm sure she has some but I'll need to get some other ones too! I should be getting some materials this week and setting it all up next week or so!
1:35 pm
Another post! Two posts in one period this has got to be a record. This time it's all about the lists. I have a lot of lists to make though so this comes easy.
For example here's the materials I need, a list you guys have already seen:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)
A list in order of how much this will cost me (roughly):
-Styrofoam cooler = free
-Duct tape = $2.00
-25 watt bulbs and a lamp = $7.00
-Temperature and humidity monitor $10.00
-Bowl with a sponge in it = free
-Chicken wire = $10.00
-Clear piece of glass or plastic = either free or $5.00
so that's going to be more or less around 30 dollars. Then I have to figure out how much the chicken eggs will cost me and where I'm getting them from.
So far I'm at about $180 or so? Oh gosh that sounds like a lot:( I guess it's time to write a proposal for a grant!! And start doing some chores for my dad..fun...
I've asked my mom if she had any materials and sent her a list of them. I'm sure she has some but I'll need to get some other ones too! I should be getting some materials this week and setting it all up next week or so!
Entry #17: In Class Reflection
3/18/13
1:10
So I'm sitting in class writing this as a reflection. And I'm answering the question of what have I found surprising, unexpected, or unintended in my project so far.
Actually a lot. I had no idea my plans would be flip flopping around. I thought I'd make an initial plan and I'd stick to it and some things wouldn't go as I planned but now that I've decided to make the incubator now and do the coop later..I didn't know that my plans could completely change like that, which I'm fine with but I just didn't intend on that happening.
Another this is the cost. The coop will be the most costly thing is what I have figured out by now, and the incubator not as much. I would've thought that the incubator would've needed special materials that would cost a lot of money but it turns out that the plywood will be much more costly.
These are only two things that have surprised me so far, and I'm sure that there will be many more surprises on the way! I'm pretty flexible to my plans changing and things popping up that I did not expect, but I'm sure there will be a few frustrations along the way as well!
1:10
So I'm sitting in class writing this as a reflection. And I'm answering the question of what have I found surprising, unexpected, or unintended in my project so far.
Actually a lot. I had no idea my plans would be flip flopping around. I thought I'd make an initial plan and I'd stick to it and some things wouldn't go as I planned but now that I've decided to make the incubator now and do the coop later..I didn't know that my plans could completely change like that, which I'm fine with but I just didn't intend on that happening.
Another this is the cost. The coop will be the most costly thing is what I have figured out by now, and the incubator not as much. I would've thought that the incubator would've needed special materials that would cost a lot of money but it turns out that the plywood will be much more costly.
These are only two things that have surprised me so far, and I'm sure that there will be many more surprises on the way! I'm pretty flexible to my plans changing and things popping up that I did not expect, but I'm sure there will be a few frustrations along the way as well!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Entry #16: Incubator Materials
3/14/13
9:26am
So last night I talked to my parents about heading on a different track with my WISE project right now, and how I'm starting to think more about the incubator rather than the chicken coop.
I listed the materials below which I'll need after listening to the video with headphones on.
This is the link to it in case you missed it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ
So here's pretty much what I'll need for a DIY egg incubator according to that video that I'm going to be basing my incubator off of:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)
As you can see the materials aren't super expensive at all, and as luck would have it my mom actually has a lot of the stuff I need at her lab! I was really excited to hear that because that cuts my budget down, even by a little bit.
I've asked her to bring in whatever materials she has in her lab for me, and hopefully I'll have all the materials gathered soon, and be ready to start building it! I'll show you guys pictures when I actually start constructing it!:)
9:26am
So last night I talked to my parents about heading on a different track with my WISE project right now, and how I'm starting to think more about the incubator rather than the chicken coop.
I listed the materials below which I'll need after listening to the video with headphones on.
This is the link to it in case you missed it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ
So here's pretty much what I'll need for a DIY egg incubator according to that video that I'm going to be basing my incubator off of:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)
As you can see the materials aren't super expensive at all, and as luck would have it my mom actually has a lot of the stuff I need at her lab! I was really excited to hear that because that cuts my budget down, even by a little bit.
I've asked her to bring in whatever materials she has in her lab for me, and hopefully I'll have all the materials gathered soon, and be ready to start building it! I'll show you guys pictures when I actually start constructing it!:)
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Entry #15: Incubator Plans
3/13/13
1:37pm
Yesterday I had another meeting with Mr. Reiff where he cleared up a bunch of questions about the assignment that's due next Monday. It doesn't specifically relate to my project, but it's just an in depth analysis of the Biology comic book that I made a post about earlier.
Anyways I found a great DIY video on a chicken incubator and all the materials I'll need and how to set them up and such.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ
That's the link if you're interested in watching it. Unfortunately I'm in the library and I don't have headphones so I can't listen to it, but I was actually looking for this video before I found it today because I've watched it before when I did research on incubators and this was my favorite video by far. It's extremely helpful and lets me know what materials I need and how to assemble them which is exactly what I needed to find.
Yesterday I had another meeting with Mr. Reiff where he cleared up a bunch of questions about the assignment that's due next Monday. It doesn't specifically relate to my project, but it's just an in depth analysis of the Biology comic book that I made a post about earlier.
Anyways I found a great DIY video on a chicken incubator and all the materials I'll need and how to set them up and such.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ
That's the link if you're interested in watching it. Unfortunately I'm in the library and I don't have headphones so I can't listen to it, but I was actually looking for this video before I found it today because I've watched it before when I did research on incubators and this was my favorite video by far. It's extremely helpful and lets me know what materials I need and how to assemble them which is exactly what I needed to find.
I also wanted to find a video and not just an article about making and assembling an incubator because I don't have to picture what the final project will look like, I have it right in front of me in the video.
As well as this I've decided to make two incubators, each containing 6 eggs, so if something goes wrong in one incubator, the other half of the dozen eggs will not be affected. This will it might assure a high percentage of eggs that will hatch in the end.
For now, when I go home I'll listen to the video, figure out what materials I'll need, and where I can get them. There may be some materials I need to order online, but I'm pretty sure for the most part I'll be able to go to Walmart, Lowe's, or Target to get what I need.
That's all!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Entry #14: Response to "Practicing"
3/11/13
1:26pm
I really enjoyed reading the short article about practicing. I understood when the author said, "practicing and playing are rarely synonymous. As guitarists it's safe to say that we play a lot, but rarely do we actually practice." I'm not a musician and my project really has no room for practicing but I understood this quote very well.
I really wish that my project allowed me time to practice doing things such as building a coop or incubating the eggs, but unfortunately I just don't have enough time to:( I can't really practice any of the stuff I need to accomplish in the end. I guess I wish I could practice so I could fix the bugs and glitches in the project so that my final project would turn out flawlessly, but unfortunately I'm just gonna have to wing it.
Other than that I found the whole article interesting with lots if valid point and opinions. Most of the time I get bored reading articles but this one was short enough it kept my attention. Even though the only reason was that the article got cut off.
1:26pm
I really enjoyed reading the short article about practicing. I understood when the author said, "practicing and playing are rarely synonymous. As guitarists it's safe to say that we play a lot, but rarely do we actually practice." I'm not a musician and my project really has no room for practicing but I understood this quote very well.
I really wish that my project allowed me time to practice doing things such as building a coop or incubating the eggs, but unfortunately I just don't have enough time to:( I can't really practice any of the stuff I need to accomplish in the end. I guess I wish I could practice so I could fix the bugs and glitches in the project so that my final project would turn out flawlessly, but unfortunately I'm just gonna have to wing it.
Other than that I found the whole article interesting with lots if valid point and opinions. Most of the time I get bored reading articles but this one was short enough it kept my attention. Even though the only reason was that the article got cut off.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Entry #13: Response to Biology Comic
3/7/13
1:40 pm
Mr. Reiff on Monday also gave everyone in the class a previous WISE journal to look at just so we had an idea of what ours should look like. They actually look pretty similar, except for the journal I looked at was in paper, and mine is on the internet so that was a big difference.
However, the content was very similar. We both talked about what problems we are facing, if we are getting behind, and other similarities. But I'm dealing with chickens and the boy whose journal it is is about a biology comic book. I guess that both of us are dealing with a type of biology to a certain extent, but mine is more focused on the big picture of life. My project deals with the entirety of an organism while his project is all about what happens on a molecular level of biology.
It was very interesting to get a look at someone else's journal, but other than that and the few similarities I found we shared it wasn't that helpful to read.
1:40 pm
Mr. Reiff on Monday also gave everyone in the class a previous WISE journal to look at just so we had an idea of what ours should look like. They actually look pretty similar, except for the journal I looked at was in paper, and mine is on the internet so that was a big difference.
However, the content was very similar. We both talked about what problems we are facing, if we are getting behind, and other similarities. But I'm dealing with chickens and the boy whose journal it is is about a biology comic book. I guess that both of us are dealing with a type of biology to a certain extent, but mine is more focused on the big picture of life. My project deals with the entirety of an organism while his project is all about what happens on a molecular level of biology.
It was very interesting to get a look at someone else's journal, but other than that and the few similarities I found we shared it wasn't that helpful to read.
Entry #12: Response to Movie
3/7/13
This Monday our class watched a previous WISE movie on a boy who built a farm for his project.
I thought that the video was very well done. It showed a lot of action, construction, and had good narration and interviews that helped the viewer know what was going on. The background music always fit and made sense with what was going on during the scene.
As far as relating to mine, this project didn't really match up completely. But as far as building, I am constructing a chicken coop which involves the same thing that the boy's project did.
I also share some of the same problems that he did. When he was building he said that things took a much longer time frame than he expected. I expected to be building the coop a while ago, but now I am contemplating building it after Costa Rica, so my time frame as well has been mixed up just as the guy in the video was.
Other than that there was pretty much no correlation between our projects haha. Although I kind of wish that someone was filming me doing this project, or when the chicks arrive, that'd be pretty cool. But I think that I'm gonna make a little film about my project too, or after they have already hatched so I actually have something to film. I guess that's kind of like the film. Even though they're about completely different things, they're both still films.
This Monday our class watched a previous WISE movie on a boy who built a farm for his project.
I thought that the video was very well done. It showed a lot of action, construction, and had good narration and interviews that helped the viewer know what was going on. The background music always fit and made sense with what was going on during the scene.
As far as relating to mine, this project didn't really match up completely. But as far as building, I am constructing a chicken coop which involves the same thing that the boy's project did.
I also share some of the same problems that he did. When he was building he said that things took a much longer time frame than he expected. I expected to be building the coop a while ago, but now I am contemplating building it after Costa Rica, so my time frame as well has been mixed up just as the guy in the video was.
Other than that there was pretty much no correlation between our projects haha. Although I kind of wish that someone was filming me doing this project, or when the chicks arrive, that'd be pretty cool. But I think that I'm gonna make a little film about my project too, or after they have already hatched so I actually have something to film. I guess that's kind of like the film. Even though they're about completely different things, they're both still films.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Entry #11: 3rd Mentor Meeting aaand Change of Plans
3/5/13
1:41 pm
Okay so I just talked to Mr. Reiff and we kind of agreed upon having a change of plans. I'll still continue working towards the chicken coop but I should probably focus on finding a place to order the eggs from, and getting/making the incubator and all the stuff that goes along with that.
However I still want to get the chicken coop materials as soon as I can, and think of ways to fund raise some money for my project. If I get the materials for the chicken coop, when I come back from Costa Rica I can build it while the chicks are incubating, which will be around 3 weeks, which I believe to be plenty of time, if I already have the materials.
Mr. Reiff also suggested doing a dry run which I think is a good idea. This basically means putting the chicken coop together before I go to CR so that when I come back, I'll be able to put it together easily, and I'll already know the glitches of the structure, since I'll have built it before.
I guess I still have to figure out what kind of work I'll be doing in Costa Rica, or if I'll even be able to. I maybe be able to post one or two times, but I really don't think that we're gonna have great access to the internet...which is actually just fine by me:)
So I've reevaluated my game plan and I'm probably gonna have to reevaluate it again once I go home and finalize things with my dad. Then finalize again! Ahh so many details to work out. But it'll all work out.
1:41 pm
Okay so I just talked to Mr. Reiff and we kind of agreed upon having a change of plans. I'll still continue working towards the chicken coop but I should probably focus on finding a place to order the eggs from, and getting/making the incubator and all the stuff that goes along with that.
However I still want to get the chicken coop materials as soon as I can, and think of ways to fund raise some money for my project. If I get the materials for the chicken coop, when I come back from Costa Rica I can build it while the chicks are incubating, which will be around 3 weeks, which I believe to be plenty of time, if I already have the materials.
Mr. Reiff also suggested doing a dry run which I think is a good idea. This basically means putting the chicken coop together before I go to CR so that when I come back, I'll be able to put it together easily, and I'll already know the glitches of the structure, since I'll have built it before.
I guess I still have to figure out what kind of work I'll be doing in Costa Rica, or if I'll even be able to. I maybe be able to post one or two times, but I really don't think that we're gonna have great access to the internet...which is actually just fine by me:)
So I've reevaluated my game plan and I'm probably gonna have to reevaluate it again once I go home and finalize things with my dad. Then finalize again! Ahh so many details to work out. But it'll all work out.
Entry #10: A Little Science
3/5/13
1:29 pm
Okay so this is a really interesting picture that I found on the internet that I thought would be super interesting to post. This is a chart of the embryo's of 8 different animals, all at the same points in their stage of development. I feel like such a nerd thinking this is cool...guess my mom's love and enthusiasm of science is finally rubbing off on me. Anyways, it was really interesting that in the first stage that they are all shown at, they all pretty much look the same. And if you compare just the chicken embryo to the human embryo..it's scarily similar.
This next picture just shows an interesting thing that doesn't really have anything to do with anything besides the fact that we descended from an aquatic animal, and eventually branched off and evolved into different kinds of animals in the future.
Anyways I thought that it was pretty awesome how through embryo comparison you can tell how similar all these different kinds of animals are linked together.
Pretty random, but still cool!
Entry #9: Lowe's
3/5/13
8:56 am
Wowwww okay so building this coop is actually a lot more work than I thought. Well I haven't gotten my materials yet but my dad and I went to Lowe's yesterday and determined what our materials we were gonna use and guessed a rough estimate of the pricing of it all....$150!!! I was actually really surprised at how much that is..and it's just for the wood.
I made a computer sketch of what I thought it was going to look like but it wasn't precise enough so I sketched it out by hand which I will post pictures of once I have all the views sketched out. My dad and I decided it would be much easier to make the measurements 8x8x8. This will mean it's basically an 8 foot cube.
When we got home from Lowe's we measured how high the deck was and it was exactly 8 feet high! This was perfect because now I will be able to nail the coop's roof directly onto my deck, and use one of the sides of my house as a side of the actual structure, meaning I am able to use less materials! This was all my dad's idea. He has been such a big help with all of this, but I'm pretty sure he's excited to help me make this coop too!
So now what I'll do is finish the sketches of the coop, with all the parts included, see how many pieces of wood I will need, and then run it by my dad to make sure I have everything correct. After that we will get the materials from Lowe's, and proceed to build.
Originally I wanted this to be done before I left for Costa Rica, which is March 29th, but as my dad pointed out, there is still a lot of work to be done before then. This also includes getting the incubator materials and setting that up as well! Ahhhh so many things to think about. But at the same time, I'll have time to work on the coop while the eggs are in incubation which will be about 21 days. So there's a lot for me to consider right now!
8:56 am
Wowwww okay so building this coop is actually a lot more work than I thought. Well I haven't gotten my materials yet but my dad and I went to Lowe's yesterday and determined what our materials we were gonna use and guessed a rough estimate of the pricing of it all....$150!!! I was actually really surprised at how much that is..and it's just for the wood.
I made a computer sketch of what I thought it was going to look like but it wasn't precise enough so I sketched it out by hand which I will post pictures of once I have all the views sketched out. My dad and I decided it would be much easier to make the measurements 8x8x8. This will mean it's basically an 8 foot cube.
When we got home from Lowe's we measured how high the deck was and it was exactly 8 feet high! This was perfect because now I will be able to nail the coop's roof directly onto my deck, and use one of the sides of my house as a side of the actual structure, meaning I am able to use less materials! This was all my dad's idea. He has been such a big help with all of this, but I'm pretty sure he's excited to help me make this coop too!
So now what I'll do is finish the sketches of the coop, with all the parts included, see how many pieces of wood I will need, and then run it by my dad to make sure I have everything correct. After that we will get the materials from Lowe's, and proceed to build.
Originally I wanted this to be done before I left for Costa Rica, which is March 29th, but as my dad pointed out, there is still a lot of work to be done before then. This also includes getting the incubator materials and setting that up as well! Ahhhh so many things to think about. But at the same time, I'll have time to work on the coop while the eggs are in incubation which will be about 21 days. So there's a lot for me to consider right now!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Entry #8: Snow :( and 2nd Mentor Meeting
2/27/13
1:46 pm
Whhhhyyy is there so much snow?! I can't begin to make my coop outside and it's gonna snow forever:( Please stop snowing February. Well what did I expect? It's Ithaca. In winter. Aka winter is at least 8 months of the entire year if not more. Ugh.
Anyways I've also decided that the dimensions will be 7x7x4. Then I'll have to make shelves and ahhhh. How will I do this inside my house and then transfer it outside? And I'll have to consider using materials that snow won't destroy, which I actually surprisingly didn't think of before.
Hopefully it'll be okay though!
2/28/13
1:20pm
I had my second mentor meeting with Mr. Reiff. He gave me some articles that have to do with chickens and such and I've skimmed them over and they look interesting. Now I am going to go through and read them more thoroughly and highlight the important parts which could potentially help me with this project.
Over the weekend I plan to go to get my materials for my chicken coop with my dad! Since tomorrow is March first I'll want to start building by next week! That's pretty scary and exciting.
I still have yet to figure out how the heck am I going to build it inside, or maybe make it snow proof? Is that even possible? Hmmm, I have a lot to think about in the next upcoming days before I actually go out and get my materials!
1:46 pm
Whhhhyyy is there so much snow?! I can't begin to make my coop outside and it's gonna snow forever:( Please stop snowing February. Well what did I expect? It's Ithaca. In winter. Aka winter is at least 8 months of the entire year if not more. Ugh.
Anyways I've also decided that the dimensions will be 7x7x4. Then I'll have to make shelves and ahhhh. How will I do this inside my house and then transfer it outside? And I'll have to consider using materials that snow won't destroy, which I actually surprisingly didn't think of before.
Hopefully it'll be okay though!
2/28/13
1:20pm
I had my second mentor meeting with Mr. Reiff. He gave me some articles that have to do with chickens and such and I've skimmed them over and they look interesting. Now I am going to go through and read them more thoroughly and highlight the important parts which could potentially help me with this project.
Over the weekend I plan to go to get my materials for my chicken coop with my dad! Since tomorrow is March first I'll want to start building by next week! That's pretty scary and exciting.
I still have yet to figure out how the heck am I going to build it inside, or maybe make it snow proof? Is that even possible? Hmmm, I have a lot to think about in the next upcoming days before I actually go out and get my materials!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Entry #7: Response to Other Blogs
2/27/13
I viewed Lena Kornreich's blog and Autumn Evans-Wilent's blogs.
Autumn's blog:
I really like Autumn's blog so far! It's very interesting to read how she got interested in sign language. It's also interesting to read what challenges she has faced to far, such as not finding a mentor, and not finding a person who knew a lot about sign language. I also liked how she included pictures in both her posts so far. It provides a nice visual aid to go along with what she's telling to the person reading her blog. However she might need a few more posts, but since she just got a mentor, I'm sure there will be many more in the future.
Some things I might ask her are, how will you learn sign language if you don't have a "guru" to show you? Will you use things such as the internet? Or books?
Lena's blog:
I really enjoyed reading Lena's blog. It's very personal, and not very formal, making it really easy to picture her saying what she has written. I love the incorporation of a personal photo of her music score paper, it also adds a very personal touch to the blog. It's fun watching the videos she has shared with the reader as well, it makes each post more interesting since there is visual aid as well. Overall the website is coming together very well! I'm excited for the final piece to be printed out and played! I would also like to hear what it sounds like and am curious about that!
I viewed Lena Kornreich's blog and Autumn Evans-Wilent's blogs.
Autumn's blog:
I really like Autumn's blog so far! It's very interesting to read how she got interested in sign language. It's also interesting to read what challenges she has faced to far, such as not finding a mentor, and not finding a person who knew a lot about sign language. I also liked how she included pictures in both her posts so far. It provides a nice visual aid to go along with what she's telling to the person reading her blog. However she might need a few more posts, but since she just got a mentor, I'm sure there will be many more in the future.
Some things I might ask her are, how will you learn sign language if you don't have a "guru" to show you? Will you use things such as the internet? Or books?
Lena's blog:
I really enjoyed reading Lena's blog. It's very personal, and not very formal, making it really easy to picture her saying what she has written. I love the incorporation of a personal photo of her music score paper, it also adds a very personal touch to the blog. It's fun watching the videos she has shared with the reader as well, it makes each post more interesting since there is visual aid as well. Overall the website is coming together very well! I'm excited for the final piece to be printed out and played! I would also like to hear what it sounds like and am curious about that!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Entry #6: Laying out the Area
Wednesday, February 20th9:18 am
Hi guys!
It's supposed to have been 3-4 days since my last post, but since I accidentally pressed save instead of publish, it'll only have been about one day.
Anyways today I will be measuring out the areas where the chickens will have their coop. I'm planning for all the chickens to survive, in case they do, and I've researched how many square feet per chicken you need. It's roughly 2-4 feet per bird, and with 12 birds that's 24-48 square feet of chicken coop. That kind of seems like a lot but we'll see once I measure it out. I'm leaning towards around 50 square feet since they'll have outside space enclosed in chicken wire to roam around in.
I'm kind of nervous about building this coop with it still being February. If it snows and ruins the coop I have no idea what I'll do. I've been thinking about starting to build it inside my house and then transferring it outside later. On top of this I also have to make a small enclosure where they chicks can reside in while they grow to a big enough size where I can transfer them to a real coop.
On a different note I've been getting ideas for prices for supplies such as heat lamps, bird feed, containers, etc. I've posted a few links to potential things I will most likely order within the next few weeks in preparation for the chicks.
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Cable-05968-Brooder-Heat/dp/B001EEQ5Y6/ref=sr_1_84?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1361370471&sr=1-84&keywords=heat+lamps
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-Plastic-Hanging-PHF3/dp/B001CS2RTQ/ref=sr_1_31?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1361370932&sr=1-31&keywords=chicken+feeder
Thursday, February 21st
1:20pm
Hello again!
So I've talked to my dad and he's agreed to assist me in making a coop attached to the back of my shed, or even underneath the overhang of my porch, there the coop may be safer from predators and such.
He suggested we make the coop 8' by 8' or measurements around there. Now that I've figured out roughly the size of my chicken coop it's time that I actually start drawing out a sketch of my idea on paper, and collect the materials! I think my dad and I are going down on Saturday to look at materials and get ideas in Agway and Lowe's, and then perhaps go and actually get all the materials the next day on Sunday!
For now I'll make the sketch design of my coop with exact measurements and proportions and then upload a picture of that!
Hi guys!
It's supposed to have been 3-4 days since my last post, but since I accidentally pressed save instead of publish, it'll only have been about one day.
Anyways today I will be measuring out the areas where the chickens will have their coop. I'm planning for all the chickens to survive, in case they do, and I've researched how many square feet per chicken you need. It's roughly 2-4 feet per bird, and with 12 birds that's 24-48 square feet of chicken coop. That kind of seems like a lot but we'll see once I measure it out. I'm leaning towards around 50 square feet since they'll have outside space enclosed in chicken wire to roam around in.
I'm kind of nervous about building this coop with it still being February. If it snows and ruins the coop I have no idea what I'll do. I've been thinking about starting to build it inside my house and then transferring it outside later. On top of this I also have to make a small enclosure where they chicks can reside in while they grow to a big enough size where I can transfer them to a real coop.
On a different note I've been getting ideas for prices for supplies such as heat lamps, bird feed, containers, etc. I've posted a few links to potential things I will most likely order within the next few weeks in preparation for the chicks.
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Cable-05968-Brooder-Heat/dp/B001EEQ5Y6/ref=sr_1_84?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1361370471&sr=1-84&keywords=heat+lamps
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-Plastic-Hanging-PHF3/dp/B001CS2RTQ/ref=sr_1_31?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1361370932&sr=1-31&keywords=chicken+feeder
Thursday, February 21st
1:20pm
Hello again!
So I've talked to my dad and he's agreed to assist me in making a coop attached to the back of my shed, or even underneath the overhang of my porch, there the coop may be safer from predators and such.
He suggested we make the coop 8' by 8' or measurements around there. Now that I've figured out roughly the size of my chicken coop it's time that I actually start drawing out a sketch of my idea on paper, and collect the materials! I think my dad and I are going down on Saturday to look at materials and get ideas in Agway and Lowe's, and then perhaps go and actually get all the materials the next day on Sunday!
For now I'll make the sketch design of my coop with exact measurements and proportions and then upload a picture of that!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Entry 5: The Chicken Coop Design
3/16/13
Posted on 3/20
Hello all!
Well I talked to my dad today and unfortunately I can't make the shed into a chicken coop :(
However!!...I can build off the back of the shed to make my chicken coop. My dad seems pretty into this building of the coop process. He suggested sometime this weekend we go to Lowe's or Agway to get ideas of woods and materials which is exactly what I need! It must be a guy thing..the whole building things. Personally shopping for wood and chicken wire sounds way less appealing than shopping for clothes but I guess that's a girl thing.
Anyways, I have a new idea for the coop which I think my dad is on board for too. He described something like the picture below for me, and honestly it doesn't look like it's too terribly hard to make.
Posted on 3/20
Hello all!
Well I talked to my dad today and unfortunately I can't make the shed into a chicken coop :(
However!!...I can build off the back of the shed to make my chicken coop. My dad seems pretty into this building of the coop process. He suggested sometime this weekend we go to Lowe's or Agway to get ideas of woods and materials which is exactly what I need! It must be a guy thing..the whole building things. Personally shopping for wood and chicken wire sounds way less appealing than shopping for clothes but I guess that's a girl thing.
Anyways, I have a new idea for the coop which I think my dad is on board for too. He described something like the picture below for me, and honestly it doesn't look like it's too terribly hard to make.
I also want to make a portable enclosure for them so they can be taken to different areas of the garden and yard to fertilize that soil.
Whoops! I accidentally pressed save instead of publish so this has been a draft for 3 days!:(
My bad.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Entry #4: More Research
3/14/13
Hi again!
I've just been researching about how to make a coop still and I should be getting my materials to build it any day now! My dad suggested we go to a lumber place and get pieces of wood to construct shelves that will house the chickens inside our shed.
I've had to look at a lot of different designs on shelves, how high they should be, and how big the individual shelves should be as well since I'm not entirely sure how big the chickens will get.
I still have to figure out how long I'm gonna keep these chickens around. I really want to sell their eggs once they start laying them, but that doesn't happen until 3-4 months after they hatch. That means they won't start laying until late July or early August, but by that time I'll be preparing to leave for college and working so I'm not sure how that's going to work but I'll figure it out.
Anyways the shed for the coop is perfect, now I'll need to set up the heat lamps themselves, the bedding, and of course construct the shelves. I'll also have to find out where to get their feed, containers and everything.
This is a picture of what I want my shelves to look like once I'm finished.
Hi again!
I've just been researching about how to make a coop still and I should be getting my materials to build it any day now! My dad suggested we go to a lumber place and get pieces of wood to construct shelves that will house the chickens inside our shed.
I've had to look at a lot of different designs on shelves, how high they should be, and how big the individual shelves should be as well since I'm not entirely sure how big the chickens will get.
I still have to figure out how long I'm gonna keep these chickens around. I really want to sell their eggs once they start laying them, but that doesn't happen until 3-4 months after they hatch. That means they won't start laying until late July or early August, but by that time I'll be preparing to leave for college and working so I'm not sure how that's going to work but I'll figure it out.
Anyways the shed for the coop is perfect, now I'll need to set up the heat lamps themselves, the bedding, and of course construct the shelves. I'll also have to find out where to get their feed, containers and everything.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Bibliography Page
Biblography
Coop:
- "How to Build Shelves." How to Build Shelves. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. <http://woodgears.ca/shelves/index.html>.
- "How Many Square Feet per Chicken in the Coop?" How Many Square Feet per Chicken in the Coop? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/616605/how-many-square-feet-per-chicken-in-the-coop>.
"How To Incubate & Hatch Eggs - Just 21 Days From Egg To Chicken!" - BackYard Chickens Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken>.
This site gives me a lot of basic tips on what to do while the chicks are incubating.
- "How to Build Shelves." How to Build Shelves. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. <http://woodgears.ca/shelves/index.html>.
- "How Many Square Feet per Chicken in the Coop?" How Many Square Feet per Chicken in the Coop? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/616605/how-many-square-feet-per-chicken-in-the-coop>.
"How To Incubate & Hatch Eggs - Just 21 Days From Egg To Chicken!" - BackYard Chickens Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken>.
This site gives me a lot of basic tips on what to do while the chicks are incubating.
- Ries, Victoria. "How to Make a Chicken Coop." EHow. Demand Media, 25 May 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. <http://www.ehow.com/how_2296027_make-chicken-coop.html>.
YouTube. Perf. Epicfantasy. YouTube. YouTube, 07 Sept. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ>.
This is the video which I will be basing my chicken incubator out of. It is a video which gives me all the materials and how to assemble it.
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx
YouTube. Perf. Epicfantasy. YouTube. YouTube, 07 Sept. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ>.
This is the video which I will be basing my chicken incubator out of. It is a video which gives me all the materials and how to assemble it.
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx
Entry #3: First Meeting with Mentor
Hi guys!
Research is going good! I'm now looking into how to build a chicken coop and I've gotten so many ideas. I've actually talked to my dad about turning the shed behind our house into a chicken coop and I think he may go for that idea!
All I have to do is clear the things that are currently in it out of it, and then build shelves. I'd probably have to build at least 12 shelves because what if all the chickens end up hatching? That would be so many chickens. Then I need to fill the bottom with shavings such as pine. I learned that paper won't work to line the bottom of the coop because it can get very soggy and smelly. Of course I have to put in heat lamps so the chickens don't freeze or get to too low temperatures over night.
Also I just had my first meeting with my mentor, who is Mr. Reiff. He gave me a lot of ideas and suggestions about community outreach which was helpful since I hadn't really thought that far yet. He told me I should go to farmers markets and interview people, farmers, and the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell. All very helpful tips and ideas for a first meeting.
I had no idea how much work this was going to be when I started it but it sure seems like a lot. I've got my work cut out for me. Anyways I have 16 weeks or so to make it all happen. Hopefully it does!
Research is going good! I'm now looking into how to build a chicken coop and I've gotten so many ideas. I've actually talked to my dad about turning the shed behind our house into a chicken coop and I think he may go for that idea!
All I have to do is clear the things that are currently in it out of it, and then build shelves. I'd probably have to build at least 12 shelves because what if all the chickens end up hatching? That would be so many chickens. Then I need to fill the bottom with shavings such as pine. I learned that paper won't work to line the bottom of the coop because it can get very soggy and smelly. Of course I have to put in heat lamps so the chickens don't freeze or get to too low temperatures over night.
Also I just had my first meeting with my mentor, who is Mr. Reiff. He gave me a lot of ideas and suggestions about community outreach which was helpful since I hadn't really thought that far yet. He told me I should go to farmers markets and interview people, farmers, and the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell. All very helpful tips and ideas for a first meeting.
I had no idea how much work this was going to be when I started it but it sure seems like a lot. I've got my work cut out for me. Anyways I have 16 weeks or so to make it all happen. Hopefully it does!
Friday, February 8, 2013
Entry #2
Hello again!
So here's an outline of what my next few weeks will look like.
February
My goals for this month is going to be to have the chicken coop well started.
I also haven't discussed with my mentor when our weekly meetings will be but I'm going to do that today when I speak to her and I'll let you know!
So here's an outline of what my next few weeks will look like.
February
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 1. Research-hatching eggs | 2. Research-hatching eggs | 3. Research-hatching eggs | 4. Research-hatching eggs | |||
| 5. Have all research done about eggs. | 6. Research about building coop | 7. Research about building coop | 8. Research about building coop | 9. Research about building coop. Blog | 8. Research about building coop | 9. Research about building coop |
| 10. Research about building coop | 11. Research about building coop Blog | 12. Research about building coop | 13. Have all research done about coop. Blog | 14. Get materials for chicken coop | 15. Get materials for chicken coop Blog | 16. Get materials for chicken coop |
| 17. Have all materials done for coop. Blog | 18. Set up coop Blog | 19 Set up coop | 20. Set up coop | 21. Set up coop Blog | 22. Set up coop | 23. Set up coop |
| 24. Set up coop Blog | 25. Set up coop | 26. Set up coop Blog | 27. Set up coop | 28. Set up coop blog | 29.Set up coop blog | |
My goals for this month is going to be to have the chicken coop well started.
I also haven't discussed with my mentor when our weekly meetings will be but I'm going to do that today when I speak to her and I'll let you know!
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