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Why do chicken eggs have to be warm to hatch? |
Birds
Chickens can sit on their eggs for weeks waiting for them to hatch. They’ll take quick bathroom and food breaks, but most of their days are spent just sitting there! They’re doing their best to keep the eggs warm, and that is because all bird eggs have a special temperature where the baby birds inside of them can grow and be healthy. That temperature is different for different types of birds.
If it’s too cold or too hot, it can actually hurt the chicks. It’s not too different from people. If it’s really cold outside, we can get sick, so we usually wear coats and mittens to keep us warm and healthy. A mother hen will work very hard to keep her eggs at the right temperature. Can you imagine just sitting down for weeks? It’s hard work, but the hens try very best to keep the chicks safe and healthy.
When people hatch chicken eggs in a special tank called an incubator, without using a mother hen, they use heat lamps to control the temperature. For the baby chicks inside the eggs, it’s almost just like being in the nest.
Chicken Dance!
If you don’t want to sit down for weeks like a mother hen in her nest, dancing is a fun way to get up and be active! Maybe you know Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or The Hokey Pokey. There’s another song called The Chicken Dance! You move your hands like beaks, flap your wings and shake your tail feathers!
The song is pretty popular, and a grown-up can probably help you find it. Maybe they’ll even dance with you!
Can you think of dances for other animals too?
