Why Are Some Eggs Brown and Some Eggs White?

There is more than one kind of chicken.  Some have white feathers and others have red or brown feathers.  The white chickens lay white eggs.  The red or brown chickens lay brown eggs.  Brown eggs often cost more because the red and brown chickens eat more food than the white chickens. 

Which color of egg do you like more?  Which color of chicken do you prefer?

Compare one brown egg with one white egg.  Do they weigh the same?  Does one cook faster?  Do you notice a difference in flavor?  The food the chickens are fed will affect the taste too.

Where do butterflies go at night?

Butterflies rest at night in safe, dry places like inside a crack in a rock or under a leaf.  Night time is often too cold for butterflies.  Daytime usually brings the sun and warmer air.  Butterflies need the warm air to heat their bodies up enough to fly and eat.

Where would you go at night if you were as small as a butterfly?

Do cats have a heart?

Yes!  All animals with hair, feathers, or scales have a heart.  The heart pushes blood to all parts of the body.

If you put water in a plastic baggie, you can squeeze the baggie and move the water around.  Your hand is pushing the water just like your heart pushes blood.

Picture:  A drawing of the inside of a heart.

Why don't ducks freeze in the winter?

Photo by Derek Ramsey from Wikimedia.

Ducks have several traits that let them live in snowy weather, as  long as they can find food and water. 

Ducks have a special blood system that helps keep them warm on cold ground.  Warm blood leaving the duck's heart heats up cold blood coming from the duck's feet.  The paths for the warm blood and the cold blood come very close to each other.  This is called countercurrent blood flow.  It keeps the duck warm in the middle and the head, where it matters most. 

Ducks also have a lot of fat and feathers to keep them warm, just like a jacket.  Most of a duck's organs (like the heart and lungs) and muscles are under the fat and feathers.

Do all groundhogs live in tree stumps?

Photo from wikimedia.com.

No, most groundhogs live underground in tunnels they dig themselves.  The main entrance to the tunnel is usually a pile of dirt.  The tunnel often goes straight down for about two feet, and then turns into rooms for eating or sleeping.  The groundhog often digs more than one tunnel with more than one "door."  Groundhogs usually live where forests meet fields or yards.

If you dug a home underground, what rooms would you put in it?  How many doors would you dig?

What do crocodiles eat?

Crocodiles are not picky eaters!  They can eat almost any animal that drinks from the water where the crocodile is waiting.  This can include turtles, frogs, fish, birds, and more!  Big crocodiles can eat bigger animals like pigs, antelope, or horses.  Crocodiles in different parts of the world have different diets.  In Australia, crocodiles can eat wallabies, and in Africa crocodiles can eat zebras.  Sometimes bigger crocodiles will even eat smaller crocodiles!

Photo:  American Crocodile in Mexico by Tomás Castelazo, from Wikimedia.com.

Why do owl ears look like feathers?

Photo by Ian Britton at Freefoto.com.

Owls are birds and they have feathers that cover up their ears.  Some owls have feathers that even stand up and look just like ears!  The feathers on an owl's face make a circle called a facial disc that funnels even more sound to the owl's ears.  If you could see the owl without any feathers, you would see that its ears are not even!  One ear is higher than the other one.  This lets owls hear sounds coming from up high and down low easier. 

Owls have such great hearing that they can hear a mouse squeak from half a mile away!

Try holding your hand or a cup up around your ear.  You might be able to hear sounds louder, just the way an owl's facial disc helps it to hear sounds louder.