The Diary of a Future Chick

by the children at Alexandra’s garden

translated from French by Elena Malec

It is already May 6, our eggs have been in the hatchery for 14 days now…

only a small effort and next Wednesday, if everything is going fine, we might witness

their hatching. This week we did not disturb the eggs to view them.

We guess that we are going to have 12 baby chicks. Now we only need to watch carefully

that the level of moisture in the hatchery stays high and the temperature is the same

as if given by the hen, that is about 99 degrees F.

Alexandra will make sure that the eggs are turned over twice a day.

We will come again at her place Wednesday afternoon.

This job ends soon because three days before the hatching the eggs must not be disturbed.

Now we can imagine how inside the egg our chick is growing fast.

air pocket

the egg in its 13^th day the egg in its 15^th day

In order to grow he eats the yolk and drinks the white.

At the bottom of the egg we saw in the egg candler an air pocket forming.

In order to hatch the chick will have to tear the air pocket to gain strength

to peck the egg shell.

If the chicks are not born yet by next Wednesday when we will come to Alexandra’s class

of gardening and nature observation, we will listen to their squawks with the help of a stethoscope

that we will gently place on the lid of our hatchery; and maybe we will have a chance to see an egg

Finally the big day