Chicks Update
We have a chick!!!
What an exciting (and looooong) day it has been.
At our school we have been anxiously awaiting the
hatching of our eggs this week. We expected them to
begin hatching on Tuesday and have all had to learn
lessons in patience as our eggs have not cooperated
with our countdown.
Yesterday morning we heard peeping from one of the
brown eggs and saw a hole beginning to develop in the
shell of it. We were all so excited! The children paraded through my office to take a peek and hoping to catch a glimpse one of the chicks that we have so lovingly tended for the past 21 days. Sadly, all day = not much progress.
Last night my children and I stopped at the school to see if that little chick had made it out.
This is what we saw:
Progress – yes! Chick – no
We waited for two hours and still saw no chick.
It is clearly hard work to break out of a shell!
We did learn that “a watched chick never hatches”.
About 10AM this morning we returned and were just SURE that chick would have made an appearance. We were wrong; but we waited. And waited. And waited.
We left for lunch and returned. No chick.
Finally at about 2PM I began to worry because it had been well after 24 hours since this sweet chick had begun trying to make his way into the world.
Luckily, we have a Farmer’s Market at the church on Fridays so I marched myself out there and found me a wonderfully kind poultry farmer. I asked him to come see our egg and give me his opinion. His opinion was that this baby needed help. He gently picked the egg up out of the incubator and delicately removed the shell from around him.
The farmer then gently returned our first chick to the incubator and wished him luck. He seems to be doing great! He chirps and wobbles around and is working very hard to convince the rest of his friends to break out of their shells and join him in this wonderful world.
Our chick right after the farmer placed him back into the incubator. So tired!!
A few hours after hatching – our baby is starting to get a bit fluffy and is still learning to walk. Sweetest thing EVER!
This will melt your heart…as our first baby chick makes his way around the incubator, he visits other eggs and peeps at the chicks trying to hatch out of them. He even poked his beak inside of this one and appeared to try and “help” break the shell. Just when you thought that was the cutest thing you ever heard…the chicks that are trying to hatch, peep back and “talk” to our first-born chick.
I am guessing the peeping that is melting our hearts right now may grow old in the days ahead, but I really can’t imagine it!
What a miracle!
How amazing is God that he creates life and gives His creatures all they need to grow and develop? Marvelously Made INDEED!!