Learn about life cycles with baby chicks

At Casey Farm and Your Site

Students learn about bird life cycles while helping to preserve the endangered Dominique chicken breed, which is raised at Casey Farm.

A farm educator visits the classroom with everything needed to incubate a clutch of eggs, sets up the equipment, and engages students in a hands-on presentation about Dominique chickens and eggs. Twenty-one days later, as students observe, the chicks hatch. Baby chicks are returned to Casey Farm, where a few weeks later students visit them and learn about free-range chickens on one of the oldest farms in Rhode Island.

Registration for the current school year is closed. 2025-2026 registration will open in the fall.

Program Details

Available weekdays, late February through mid-May, July, and August, by appointment, for PreK – Grade 12. Includes a one-hour classroom visit or virtual program, two-hour field trip, and three weeks of incubation.

Cost and Program Options:

This program is intended for one to two classroom at a time (a maximum of 50 students). Larger presentations may be available but must be requested on the registration form and will be subject to additional fees. The program includes everything needed to hatch and care for one dozen fertile eggs, including one incubator, one classroom kit, and 12 hatching eggs. Prices are as follows:

• $250 for in-school program (We drop off and set up at your school.)
• $200 Equipment Rental – Drop Off (We drop off and set up at your school. No in-school presentation. A mileage fee of $1/mile will apply to locations inside Rhode Island, but more than 40 miles from Casey Farm)
• $140 Equipment Rental – Pick Up (You pick up at the farm. No in-school presentation)
  • Schools from outside of Rhode Island MUST choose this option for equipment rental. There is no delivery available out of state.
• We can supply one additional hatching set (incubator, kit, and dozen eggs) for $80. There is a firm two set limit per school.

Additional options:

• $150 for in-school program if your site already has an incubator
• $50 Virtual Presentation (A farm educator presents an hour long virtual Project CHICK presentation)
• $20 one dozen fertile eggs
• $12 per student for field trip
• Combine a Project CHICK field trip with one of our other programs and enjoy a full day at Casey Farm with your own picnic lunch for only $20 a student.

Maximum 100 students per field trip.

Also Available: Do you have your own incubator and hatching eggs, but would love a way to start your program off with a bang? Or are you in charge of after-school or library programming for children and looking for something a bit different? A Casey Farm educator can present a slide show on chicken development and behavior. This is followed by a hands-on display of various bird eggs and a visit from one of the farm’s Dominique chickens, a rare breed we are actively conserving. Available weekdays, spring only. Lasts one hour. Classroom, auditorium, or library program available. $150 for classrooms, $100 for libraries and community centers.

Type of Program: Field Trips, Programs to Go

Related Topics: Farming

Curriculum Links

Project CHICK connects to the Common Core State

Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy and, where applicable, Mathematics adopted in Rhode

Island in 2010, as follows (page numbers from Common Core documents linked below):

Kindergarten

• Speaking and Listening 3, 6 (p. 23)

Grade 1

• Speaking and Listening 3, 4, 6 (p. 23)

CCSS for Mathematics

• Measurement and Data 4 (p. 16)

Grade 2

• Speaking and Listening 2, 3, 4, 6 (p. 23)

Grades 3 and 4

• Speaking and Listening 2, 3, 4, 6 (p. 24)

Grade 5

• Writing 4 (p. 21)

• Speaking and Listening 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 (p. 24)

Grades 6 – 8

• Writing 4 (p. 43)

• Speaking and Listening 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 (p. 49)

View full Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy

View full Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

Questions?