Four Ducks Trying to Hatch

We have four ducks trying to hatch.  If you turn up the volume, you can hear them!

Follow live at bit.ly/koenigyoutube.

Hatch Day?

We have two ducks (#4 & #8) who have cracked through part of their shell and the membrane. 

Follow along with our live feed at bit.ly/koenigyoutube.

Egg #8 is cracked!

Egg #8 wants to emerge.  They have broken through the outer layer of the egg and membrane and are currently resting.  We can occasionally hear some peeping!

Follow along live at bit.ly/koenigyoutube and look for LIVE NOW to see the current video.


 

Caterpillar to Chrysalis (Timelapse Video)

Now that all the caterpillars and going through metamorphosis, we are focusing our attention on the eggs, again!

We saw some serious movement (with visions of head and beak) and can't wait to see them next week!

Videos are now posted here!

Here is our last caterpillar going into its chrysalis - which actually only took about 3 minutes in total.  He was a fast worker!

Caterpillars Devouring Milkweed Plants (Timelapse video)

Over the weekend, we set up a timelapse video to capture the remaining caterpillars eating some milkweed.  They were some very hungry caterpillars.

Day 15

Thank you, Frisco ISD!  I was just presented with my very owned Chromebook!  Now blogging will be easier and on the go!  This school district awards teachers, while they are employed with the district, for having lessons (5C badge-Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking) where teachers complete activities to allow us to explain, implement, and provide proof how our lesson or project exemplifies that digital skill.   These digital skills are important elements of learning and are often enhanced by the use of technology.

As I arrived this morning. a "J-hook" caterpillar was hanging getting ready to make his chrysalis.  A second caterpillar has now joined him at the top of the cage where he is making his cemented silk threading to attach to the top of the cage.
As most of the leaves have now been consumed by the caterpillars of the new plants, I plan to see more caterpillars at the top by the end of the day today.

Duck egg #2 and #7 were cracked open today, as they were not developing.  No heart or blood veins were present.  We now have 12 eggs.  At the end of the day, I observed that #10 had a hairline crack.  Mrs. McCoy and I placed wax over the crack to help it survive the last few days.
They fertilized eggs are #4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20 

Mrs. McCoy has set up an iPad on timelapse to record the caterpillars eating milkweed and video the timelapse of making a chrysalis.  Can't wait to see what that will look like on Monday.

Day 12 - New beginnings

There was an amazing surprise as I entered the classroom!  A new friend was in the enclosure.  It was getting crowded, so I visited the FA room and the Art room to borrow their butterfly cages.  Students concluded that a male Monarch butterfly had "enclosed"!  The second period took the news well, about #17, and adopted egg #7 (the Koenig egg).

We candled and weighed the eggs today in all of Koenig's classes.

Due to our candling and not seeing development in some eggs, several eggs were cracked throughout the day.  P2 lost #17; P4 lost #15; P5 lost #9; P7 lost #1 and P8 lost #3.  I might have to crack #6 during the 6th period with Mrs. Harvey's class.  It is not showing signs of development.  The local  NBC news crew and the STMS Yearbook staff came during 7th period to witness our candling and the cracking of eggs!

****Please note that NO DUCKS were destroyed.  The eggs that were cracked and opened were never fertilized.

Whew!  What a day!  Life is amazing!  I still need to preview the 38 student video submissions to select the unique ones to post!  They can be found below...

Visit our FlipGrid MixTape to see some of our recordings.

About Candling Eggs

To learn more about candling eggs, this site helps explain the reason and process:
https://www.qcsupply.com/blog/product-tips-and-how-tos/how-to-candle-egg-and-why-it-is-important.html

Day 5

Our 20 duck eggs have settled into a balmy 100℉ oasis of fun.  They get gently rocked each hour and flipped 5 times a day.  As I arrive at school, I mist them with a light spray of water.  Life's a beach for them!

The Monarchs, on the other hand, are simply showing off their maturity! Our one large caterpillar doubled in size overnight.  As he came to school on Monday, we measured him at 2 cm.  Today, he is just over 4 cm!  He chowed down on lots of leaves yesterday!  We now see four more tiny caterpillars ready to follow the eating patterns of the large one!

Visit our FlipGrid MixTape to see some of our recordings from the day.

Day 4

As the eggs were moved from the Koenig home back to school, we massed the eggs to see if there was a change in weight from the first day they arrived.  As weird as it seems, they actually DID get a bit lighter.  For the most part, the eggs dropped one gram.  I did see several eggs that kept the same mass or dropped by three grams, but the majority of them dropped one gram.  I will re-weigh the eggs on Wednesday when we pull out the three eggs/class to candle for the week-one mark.

A few more Monarch (caterpillar) eggs hatched in the butterfly cage.  We can now see 2 chrysalides beginning their metamorphosis, 1 large caterpillar (eating more and more each day) and 3 very tiny, baby caterpillars.  Each caterpillar will need at least 5 milkweed leaves to consume in order to grow to the size needed to start the transformation into a butterfly.

Visit our FlipGrid MixTape to see some of our recordings.

April Calendar

Learn about how a duckling develops inside an egg, candling eggs, and tips for raising ducks by clicking this helpful link.

Click on events for more details.




Agenda View:

April 25th, 2018 - Beginnings

Did you know our 6th grade science lab currently has duck eggs in an incubator hoping to hatch soon?
A bobcat sadly got the mother duck, but a concerned parent brought the eggs in to be nurtured by our very own Mrs. Koenig and Mrs. Harvey.

We are loving the learning experience!

Follow along at bit.ly/stmsducks. Previous recordings also exist, so make sure to look for the LIVE video.