Staff
Staff and students at St. Vital School are “egg-cited” now that the first of the eggs that were put in their incubators May 10 have started hatching out.
St. Vital is one of 10 schools involved in a Battlefords Wildlife Federation program to raise and release pheasants into the wild by incubating the eggs.
Winnifred was born June 4 at one in the afternoon. Since then, more have hatched out around the Battlefords schools. Once the eggs are done hatching out, they will be going to a farmer who will brood them for the summer. Release of these pheasants is scheduled for early September, says Cheryl Irvine of the Battlefords Wildlife Federation.
The participating schools are Connaught, St. Mary, McKitrick, Bready, Holy Family, St. Vital, Battleford Central, Lawrence and Heritage Christian Schools plus École Père Mèrcure. They took delivery of incubators earlier this year and the eggs were delivered in early May.
In September, when the students are back in school, BWF will be inviting all the students who participated in the incubation to come out to release the adult pheasants into the wild, says Irvine. They hope to have Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management officers there to talk to the kids about programs and what they can do to help animals and the environment.
“This is our first year to try this and we are very happy with the support we have had from sponsors and the public,” says Irvine.
Next year they hope to do work with even more chicks and eggs.
