As part of the Nebraska Extension School Enrichment Program, elementary students in Hall County are learning lessons on where the food on their plates comes from.

Hall County Extension assistant Melinda Vlieger is in her fourth year of conducting an embryology project with local schools. On Thursday, she was at Newell Elementary and Shoemaker Elementary candling eggs with kindergrtners.

Vlieger said the four-week program is designed to teach students the life cycle of a baby chick from the time the mother hen lays her egg to the time the egg hatches, which occurs in around 21 days.

The eggs Vlieger was candling with students on Thursday were laid 10 days prior. Through the candling process, the students could see the living embryo as the chick develops inside the egg.

Throughout the project, Vlieger said, the students are in charge of taking care of the eggs. Depending of the school, every classroom gets an incubator for which she provides 18 fertilized eggs.

"It is their job to take care of the eggs as they grow and incubate into chicks," Vlieger said.

Vlieger said the embryology program has grown during the four years she has conducted it in Hall County schools. This year, its in 10 schools, reaching 45 different classes.

"It has grown every year since I started it, and this is the biggest year so far," Vlieger said.

During the eggs time in the incubator, the temperature is kept at about 100 degrees, and the eggs are turned up until several days before they hatch so the embryos dont stick to the egg shell while developing. The yolk and the egg white in the egg provide the developing chick nourishment and fluid.

When candling, Vlieger brings a bright light from an old slide project and holds the eggs up to the light. The children can see the developing chick move around, reacting to the brightness of the light.

"It is kind of like an X-ray almost for the egg," she said. "We can see the shadow and the blood vessels and air pocket in the egg. We also talk about how some of the eggs might not be growing. That it is just part of nature, and everything doesnt always survive. That helps reinforce the life cycle and helps them understand nature."

When Vlieger held each egg before the bright light, she told the students to determine whether the egg fell into one of three categories: a yolker, an egg that hadnt developed at all; a quitter, an egg that began to develop but stopped; or a winner, an egg that is continuing to develop.

Vlieger spoke to four kindergarten classes on Thursday at Newell. At her first stop, of the 18 eggs examined, 12 fell into the winner category, five were yolkers, and there was one quitter.

Vlieger told the students that, while there were 12 winners, that doesnt necessarily mean there will be 12 baby chicks. Some may stop their development during the remaining 11 days before they hatch.

She told the students that science doesnt really have an answer why those chicks stop their development in the egg.

Vlieger also explained the struggle the baby chicks go through as they begin breaking out of their egg. She said the chicks use a special tooth on their beak, especially designed during their evolution, to break out of their shell, which could take as much as an entire day. Once the chick is out of the egg, that beak tooth falls off.

Vlieger told the students what to expect when the eggs hatch and once the chicks escape the confines of their shells. The chicks, she said, will be wet and exhausted from the rigors of breaking out of their shells. They will rest and dry out and will have enough nourishment and fluids from the egg to survive for three days before taking their first food.

The program is designed from students from kindergarten through sixth grade. At each grade level, she said, the program teaches a different aspect of embryology.

"It is for them to learn about where their food comes from and where the eggs come from," Vlieger said. "These eggs come from a farm, and they look just like the eggs that come from a store."

In March, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service, all laying hens in Nebraska totaled 8.42 million, which was down from 8.74 million the previous year. However, March egg production per 100 layers was 2,675 eggs, compared to 2,511 eggs in 2016.

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Extension program brings life lessons to classrooms - Grand Island Independent