EGG PRODUCTION BEGINS
by Theresa Farris
March 23, 2010
K/1 students have been waiting for this day since SVCA received the baby chicks back in September. We knew the chickens needed to be 20-24 weeks of age before they would start laying eggs. We knew from research in the fall that a chicken needs around 12 hours of light and lots of water to produce an egg. We had been checking on the time of sunrise and sunset during morning math and knew that we had been gaining 2 minutes of daylight every day and were approaching 11 hours of daylight on the 19th of February. Chickens lay eggs only after receiving a light cue, either from natural sunlight entering a coop or artificial light. The light stimulates a photo-receptive gland near the chicken's eye, which in turn triggers the release of an egg cell from the chicken's ovary.
With the combination of the age of our chickens and the amount of light they were receiving, we knew the first egg could not be far away.
On February 22nd we went out to the chicken coop shortly before 7:30 to let the chickens out for the day. There in the straw on the floor of the chicken coop was the first egg laid by our flock of 24 chickens.
We knew from the look of the first egg one of the steps in our production process was going to have to be washing the eggs. Mrs. Farris demonstrated how to hold the egg to help ensure the egg did not break during the washing process. Most of K/1 students had never seen a brown egg. One very important question that had to be answered was “What does the brown egg look like inside?”
The students had an opportunity to examine the brown eggshell and the membrane that surrounds the egg.
That brought up the Urban Myth “Brown Eggs are Healthier than White Eggs”. What do you think?
This sounds like a job for Myth Busters!
Check back for the answer to this Myth and many more!
