Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have a student who wants to do this experiment. The experiment by Thomas Palmer attempted this experiment and found 6 oz of peanut supplement was a threshold that stopped his chickens from laying eggs. What is the consequence from this to the chicken? Is this reversible?

I am struggling with this from a Science Teacher's ethics point of view. It seems unethical for a middle school student's experiment to impact animal health adversely. Science Buddies recommends we don't allow experiments on vertebrate animals. This experiment and teacher guidelines seem at odds. I am an electrical engineer teaching science; I am not a biologist. Please advise why this kind of experiment is safe to do and recommended to middle school students - and conscionable.

Thank You,
Mrs. T in Oregon

Hi MrsT - Thank you for your post and your questions and concerns about this project. I talked with scientists on our staff at Science Buddies about your concerns with the ethics of the experiment. They offer the following input:

1) Chickens routinely stop and re-start laying eggs due to a variety of factors. For example, egg production decreases dramatically (or in many cases stops) during the winter for chickens. It then increases again (or restarts) when warmer spring weather arrives.

2) Although this experiment involves a vertebrate animal, it in no way harms the animal (see above). It is also within the ISEF rules and regulations as it falls in the category of testing normal agricultural practices with livestock. See: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... mals.shtml

3) This type of experiment is seen widely in 4H-affiliated science fairs.

4) We applaud you for being concerned with the chicken's welfare and the ethics and feel that it would be appropriate for you to work with the student to have the student create a document that lays out what he or she will do to the chickens, the background research explaining what the student expects to observe and why, and any potential hazards to the chicken. The student could work with a veterinarian or other local expert (chicken farmer, etc) to evaluate and refine the plan. You might want to make a requirement that the plan be verified by the expert as humane prior to the start of experimentation. This is an excellent exercise as it mimics the rigor involved in getting an animal research study approved for a corporate or academic lab and it ensures that the student has done ample background research and thinking about her hypothesis and experimental design.

I hope this information and their suggestions help as you think about this project for your student. Other Experts here in the forums may also have additional input and perspective on this kind of experiment.

Amy
Science Buddies

Hello Mrs T and welcome to Scibuddies.

After reading the statements in Amy’s post in reply to your concerns, I see that you have the green light to explore the effects of peanut supplements on egg production. Chickens are not something I have much personal experience with but the effects of diet and nutrition on health is an area I am very much interested in.

I did a search for peanut supplement and egg production and learned several things that I didn’t know. I also read the Scibuddies project about testing peanuts in chicken feed, which I assume is the one you are doing:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure

The materials section lists unsalted, unroasted [‘raw’] peanuts but the procedure calls it a peanut supplement as you did, which to me sounds like something that is made by processing peanuts. Are you talking about the chickens eating raw peanuts or ground up peanuts added to their regular feed?

I also read a report on the same project online that I think is where you found out that 6 oz of ground peanuts inhibited egg production:

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2004/Projects/J1922.pdf

The report says that individual chickens were fed with 2, 4 or 6 oz of ground peanuts but it does not say whether this was done once only or the feeding was repeated on several days. Also, I assume that all the chickens were allowed to eat as much as they wanted of their usual feed, although again the methods section does not say this. Did the birds eat all of the peanuts each time?

The procedure for the Scibuddies project has certain percentages (5, 10, 20%) of ‘peanut supplement’ [peanut meal?] added to the feed. That would mean for each pound of feed, you would need to add 0.8, 1.6 or 3.2 ounces of peanuts. I’m sure one hen does not consume 2 lb of feed per day, so there is no chance that any of the birds will get 6 oz of peanut meal. I would use peanut meal rather than chopped peanuts because the birds might either avoid the peanuts or eat them preferentially if they are not well mixed in with the feed.

In order to test your results statistically, I would suggest a minimum of three birds per group [four groups]. You can average each bird’s egg production in terms of weight and size per week and then average the values for each group of three chickens. This should give you a lower standard deviation than if you used only one bird per group.
It’s a really interesting project and we look forward to hearing about your results.

Best wishes,
Sybee


Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014