Every year, kindergarten and elementary school teachers and their students place thousands of fertilized eggs in classroom incubators to be hatched within three or four weeks. No one knows how many eggs are used in chick hatching projects, but in 1994 one egg supplier sold 1,8OO eggs to New York City schools alone. Chick organs stick to the sides of the shells because they are not rotated properly. Chicks are born with their intestines outside their bodies.
Eggs can hatch on weekends when no one is in school to care for the chicks.
The heat may be turned off for the weekend causing the chicks to become crippled or die in the shell. Some teachers even remove an egg from the incubator every other day and open it up to look at the chick in various stages of development, thus adding the killing of innocent life to the child's experience. When the project is over, these now unwanted birds may be left in boxes in the main office for many hours without food, water, or adequate ventilation waiting for the district science coordinator to collect them for disposal. The emotional involvement of people goes beyond our counselling capacity. Some children do learn the truth, however.