In Which We Start Mummifying a Chicken

As part of our homeschooling curriculum we use Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World, and the accompanying activity book. For the Ancient Egypt section, there are instructions on how to mummify a chicken, so we thought we'd give it a try. It's a rather long project, so we're not done yet. But here's how you get started:

To Mummify a Chicken:

1. Unwrap supermarket chicken

2. Wash with water

3. Pat dry

4. Wash with wine

5. Pat dry

6. Prepare "natron" substitute (in this case it's a mix of salt, baking powder and baking soda). Natron was the natural salt the Egyptian's used to embalm their dead.

7.Dust chicken liberally with salt solution, stuff with salt

8. Double Ziploc bag, and let him rest for a while!

Now you keep an eye on him, and when you notice his salt solution around him is wet (it's sucking the moisture out of him!) then you get to open him up and change his salt for new, dry stuff. It should take about 6 weeks all together, we'll keep you posted.