Chicken Decomposition Lab
Meredith Blattner
4/16
4/17
4/18
4/19
4/20
4/23
4/24
4/25
4/26
4/27
Summary Report:
How Nature Affected the Chicken:
When it was cold outside, the chicken was less affected because the wind and rain caused insects to be absent, therefor delaying the decomposition of the chicken. The hot weather actually sped it up because the maggots were drawn further inside of the chicken in fear of the sun drying out, and in those times the chicken was decomposed even faster. The average weather just evened things out.
Location:
The Location was probably a factor, more on the case of ants because the chicken was set pretty close to an ant pile which made it easier access for them. Also the nearby tree made a safe and shady environment for the thin-skinned maggots to feed. This probably made it easier for other animals and insects to feed on it as well.
Clothed or Naked:
I think the fact that our chicken was naked made it easier for the insects to feed on our chicken. It caused the maggots to have to seek shelter inside of the chicken rather than on the outside which might have made them eat faster. Also on the weekend where the leg went missing, I think the fact that it was unclothed made it easier for whatever took the leg to access it.
Soil/pH Changes:
For the most part, the soil that was underneath the chicken was more acidic than the surrounding soil. This means the acidic material leaking from the chicken was seeping into the underneath soil, causing the pH to lower.
Plant/Animal Changes:
This could just be speculation but it seemed like some of the grass around the chicken was starting to dry out and die. This could just be due to the weather changes, but it could also be the change in soil from the chicken. Over time, the insects were more attracted to the chicken as the maggot eggs were hatching. I don't know about animal activity, but there were probably animals being drawn to it in the more "fresh" stages rather than the rotting ones.
Insect Activity:
The insects were less common in the earlier days. There were no insects on the first day, and on the second day there were only a few ants. On the third day there was a large amount of ants, and some flies. When it was cold, they all disappeared but returned with even more when the weather warmed back up. After the weekend, the ants were there and they were crawling all over the cage and all over the underside of the chicken. Also small maggots had appeared, probably in the L1 stage because they probably hatched from their eggs sometime on the weekend. The next couple days after that the insect activity was somewhat constant, up until day 11 when the maggot activity was higher than it had been since, and that was probably just the maggots being bigger and more visible and starting to run out of stuff to feed on.
Identifying Stages of Larva:
We didn't get to see much of the maggots on our own chicken, but on the first day they appeared, they seemed to be in the L1 stage, so not too old. That was the earliest we saw them. After that we could see the occasional one in the hole and by day 11 they looked to be in about L3 but it was hard to tell. In the other group's chicken however, there was a variation of sizes but mostly L2 and L3 I think.
Stages of Decomposition:
I of course noticed the "fresh" stage as that was the first one, and there was a little bit of bloating at the beginning but not much. The skin definitely dried out and became tough. The decaying stage was very evident after coming back from the weekend, and it was definitely evident in the stench. We didn't stay long enough to see the dry remains stage but we could kind of see it on the exposed bone from the missing leg.
Other Sites:
I only got to see Site 3's chicken, but theirs seemed to be decomposing at a similar rate as ours. The only difference was the visible maggot mass from the hole in the top of their chicken, but other than that it was mostly the same in terms of insects and such. The skin and insides broke down at the same rate and the weather affected them at the same rate as well. Our temperature was sometimes cooler because our chicken was partially shaded and theirs was in the sun. Also since ours was next to an ant pile, our ant activity was higher than theirs.