As part of our SESE Ms Lambert decided that we would be very ambitious and try and hatch our own chicks!!
Tuesday 26th January was a very exciting day in 3rd Class as it was finally time for the children to put the hen’s eggs in to the incubator.
The children were looking forward to this day for weeks and were delighted that it had finally arrived. All the boys and girls kept their fingers crossed that they would meet beautiful baby chicks in 21 days! We checked the temperature of the incubator every day and made sure that there was water in it.
Three or four days before the eggs were due to hatch we noticed cracks appearing on the egg shells and sometimes we saw the eggs rocking. And if you listened very carefully you could hear tiny little cheeps showing that the chicks were healthy and getting ready to hatch. On Monday February 15th, the day after St Valentine’s Day, our prayers to St. Ug were successful when at 9.45am, Superchick, kicked and pushed his way out of his shell all wet and sticky. We were all so excited to have a new baby in the classroom!! Click HERE for nativity video
Ms Lambert put Superchick in to our lovely warm brooder to help him dry. Meanwhile the cracks on the other eggs are getting bigger and bigger with more and more movement and cheeping. Then at 2.20pm Jimmy, chick number two came in the world. He joined Superchick in the brooder. By this time news was spreading and pupils and teachers from all over the school were coming to visit the new arrivals. Even some Mums came to our class after school to be introduced to our new classmates.
Who was going to join them? Well Yoko arrived at 5.55pm on Monday evening with Ms Lambert staying back specially to see that she was okay. She went home nervously worried that the other three eggs still to hatch were safe.
She need not have worried. Tuesday morning bright and early, when we arrived in school, there to greet us in the incubator were three more chicks all hale and hearty. These soon got names – Chicarito, Professor Fuzzy and Fluffy and were popped in to the brooder to join their brothers and sisters. Ms Lambert brought in some porridge oats to feed them and we had lots of Mums and Dads to look after the famous six.
Boys and girls from all over the school arrived during the day to check on the arrivals and all agreed that the chicks were adorable.
However we knew that we would not be able to keep our new class members for ever. We decided that the best place for the chicks to be reared would be on a farmyard. On Monday 22 February farmer, Declan Mc Glynn, took the chicks to his farm in Cooley. We are sad to see them go but we learned so much and had great fun with our hatching eggs!!
Click below to see our pictures