Thanksgiving is a little over two weeks away, and there's a good chance the turkey on an Arkansas table has a hometown story. According to the Arkansas Farm Bureau, poultry is the largest agricultural product in the state, bringing in more than half of Arkansas's farm cash receipts. Arkansas ranks third in the nation for turkeys, with about 27 million raised in 2023, third for broiler chickens and seventh for eggs, on more than 6,500 farms (Arkansas Farm Bureau).
That makes the egg one of the most important objects in Arkansas agriculture, and most kids have never really looked inside one. This month is a great time to change that. An egg is a complete life-support package, and with an incubator on the kitchen counter, your children can watch it turn into a living chick in about three weeks.
What your kids will learn
Grades K-5
- The life cycle of a chicken: egg, embryo, hatchling, chick
- What a growing chick needs from its egg: warmth, moisture and fresh air
- Why a mother hen turns her eggs, and how an incubator does the same job
- Counting days, making predictions and recording observations in a hatch journal
Grades 6-12
- The stages of embryonic development over the roughly 21-day incubation period
- How temperature and humidity affect development, and why both must stay in a narrow range
- The structure and function of the egg: shell, membranes, air cell, yolk and albumen
- Designing a controlled investigation with data logs, hatch rate and analysis
This week's activity: take apart a grocery store egg
Store eggs aren't fertile, so they won't develop, but they have the same parts a chick relies on. Plan about 30 minutes.
- Predict first. Ask your kids to draw what they think is inside an egg before you crack it. Save the drawing.
- Find the air cell. Hold the egg up and look at the wide, rounded end. Explain that a small pocket of air forms there, and a chick takes its first breath from it just before hatching.
- Crack it gently into a clear bowl. An adult can do the cracking for younger kids. Look for the yolk (the chick's food supply), the thick and thin albumen (the white, which cushions and provides water and protein) and the two twisted white cords called chalazae, which hold the yolk in the center like an anchor.
- Look for the tiny white spot on top of the yolk. In a fertile egg, that spot is where the embryo begins.
- Peel the shell membranes. Inside the broken shell, have kids pull back the thin, papery skin. There are two membranes, and the air cell forms between them.
- Compare with the prediction. What surprised them? Older kids can label a diagram and write one sentence about the job of each part.
- Wash hands well with soap and water afterward, since raw eggs can carry germs.
Once your kids know the parts, the next question is obvious: what happens when that tiny spot starts to grow? The Chicken Egg Hatching Science Kit ($137.99) lets them find out. It includes a 25-egg incubator with automatic egg turning (every 120 minutes by default, and adjustable), a clear lid so kids can watch without opening it, a digital control panel and display, and an external water bottle for topping up humidity without lifting the lid. A step-by-step curriculum and worksheets for your grade band are emailed after purchase.
A few honest planning notes:
- Fertile eggs are not included. Pick them up from a local farm, hatchery or online supplier. Arkansas has plenty of small flocks, so ask around your co-op or church.
- Hatching takes about 21 days, so count forward from the day you set the eggs and mark the expected hatch day on the calendar.
- Plan the chicks' next home before you start. Newly hatched chicks need a warm, safe brooder space, so either set one up or arrange for a local farm or friend with a flock to take them.
Join the growing community
Every kit comes with an invitation to our Facebook group, Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands. After your order, request to join and we'll add you. Families post hatch-day photos, share their temperature and humidity logs, and ask questions when something looks unusual. Your kids will be part of a group of young scientists in Arkansas, West Virginia and Arizona who are all learning by doing, and they can cheer each other on.
Two life cycles, one kitchen table
Want to go further? Run a plant life cycle alongside the chick life cycle and compare them on one chart. The Sunflower Seed Germination Science Kit ($25.00) sprouts in about 2 to 5 days, so kids can see how a seed's stored food feeds a new root and shoot while a yolk feeds a growing chick.
- Chicken Egg Hatching Science Kit – 25-Egg Automatic Incubator, with Curriculum & Worksheets: $137.99, grades K-5 or 6-12
- Sunflower Seed Germination Science Kit – Plant Biology Curriculum & Worksheets: $25.00, grades K-5 or 6-12
