Jack McDermott, a 4th year student at Moville Community College took second spot in the Biological and Ecological category with his investigation to see if the shape of an egg affects the hatch rate in chickens. The 17-year-old was the only Inishowen student in the finals, held in the RDS.
Jack has an incubator at home in Moville and used his own chickens for the project, in order to track genetics. He wanted to know if there were differences between hatches and set about dividing the eggs into two groups – ‘regular-shaped’ eggs with no defects and irregular-shaped eggs with defects.
Jack said he hoped his findings – that regular-shaped eggs hatch better – would improve the hatch rate in chickens. He was ‘over the moon’ with his award, he said.
“Jack’s project is very interesting and he came up with the idea himself. Looking at the bigger picture, his research findings could aid charities such as Bothar (who supply families with chickens) in ensuring they have a more successful hatch,” said teacher Rachel McGuinness.