Living Eggs

Over the last 2 weeks the children, teachers and parents have all been captivated by the hatching of our eggs into beautiful little chicks. We all watched as the eggs in the warm incubator cracked, and the little, wet chicks emerged. At first they were not very steady on their wobbly legs, so they needed to stay in the incubator to get stronger. When we moved them into the “brooder” they were hungry and began to eat the chick food and drink water. It was fascinating to watch them, and they seemed to like it when we talked to them. Some children drew pictures for the chicks, others read stories and showed them pictures of other chickens. We read lots of books with interesting information about chickens. Each day we wrote in a diary and drew pictures about what was happening. It was very exciting when we finally got to hold the fluffy little chicks. After washing our hands we sat on the floor and the teachers carefully gave the chicks to children to hold. Sometimes they sat in our hands or on our knees, and other times they wanted to walk about on our arms or legs!  We learnt that when they cheeped really loudly, they were upset and wanted to go back to their brothers and sisters. When the chicks sat quietly we knew they were happy and felt safe with a gentle friend.          

Some children gave the chicks names, and we put their photos on the wall so we could remember what they looked like. Every day the chicks grew a little bit bigger and stronger. Some big brothers and sisters came before and after school to visit the chicks too, everyone loved watching and holding them.

It was a little bit sad saying goodbye to the chicks on the last day, but we were very excited for two of our families, because they were able to adopt 3 of the golden (girl) chicks. Jo, from “Living Eggs” took the yellow (boy) chicks back to the farm, to live there happily with their families.