My good friend Cathy Borders told me about an awesome Embryology program she did last summer with her kids through 4-H so we decided to try it out for the month of June. On June 6th I took the kids to pick up our incubator and fertilized eggs! We marked the eggs with Xs and Os and turned them 3 times a day for several weeks. Each day we got to learn about what was developing inside the egg. We also had to fill the incubator with water to keep it humid.
Hayden was so excited when we first brought them home and set everything up, she wouldn't even look at me for a picture!
After about 3 weeks of waiting one Sunday morning Paul sent me a text from his early meetings at church and said he heard chirping and one of them was trying to break through. I woke up Hayden and took Hayden down and one had hatched through! Hayden was so happy to see a yellow chick. Last year our friends had brown chicks which didn't sound very cute to Hayden!
Reid was pretty excited to see the chick as well. He kept saying "a chick"
This was a good lesson about life and death. Two of our chicks died during hatching and it was really sad, even for Paul and I! Then once they were born we were so worried about keeping them warm enough and making sure they had everything they needed in the brooding box. The first night after transporting our 4 chicks Paul and I were so worried we each woke up a few times through the night to check on them! It was worse than having a new born baby!
First time holding the chicks, their feathers puffed up quick!
Hayden got really brave about picking them up and handling them and Reid got a little to bold as well. We could tell when he went in with the chicks because they'd start chirping a little frantically and we had to come to their rescue!
Taking a few fun pictures before returning them to the farmer
This picture kills us every time we look at it! Apparently Beckett is not that impressed!
Hayden still asks 2 months later if we can do it again next summer. We really enjoyed it and hope next year we can have a few more eggs hatch.
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