Last spring, Nana and I discovered a section on eggs in my science book. I was glad because we were just about to start raising chicks. It’s a big process, but we read and researched and read some more and then Nana bought an incubator to put the eggs in. The chicks start out as an embryo and it feeds on the yolk sac and begins growing. It was a long time before, “Peep, Peep” came from inside the egg. First the egg started to move, then we heard it. Then finally the next morning, there was a small hole in the shell. We couldn’t move the table or the chick could die of fright. When we got up a couple days later, guess what was waiting for me in the box we set up with a light? Three of the cutest, tiny, peeping, adorable, chicks!
The first few days we fed the chicks, gave them water, and cleaned up after them. One day I saw they were starting to grow feathers and they had grown bigger. Soon they outgrew their box and we moved them to a larger metal container in the garage. During this time, the family built a run for the chicks. Then after a few weeks, we moved them outside to the run. I helped Nana move the chicks (who were now pullets) each morning from the garage to the run and then back to the garage in the evening. Then after a while, we tried putting them with our older chickens, but it didn’t work because the older, larger hens ran and pecked the pullets. By this time, we realized the pullets were ROOSTERS! As time went by, the roosters grew larger and Meaner! They were difficult to catch and they pecked and chased us. Then after awhile we moved them… wait for it…. TO OUR Freezer!
Nana said she would like to have some more chicks before fall. We gathered and saved eggs and then we put them in the incubator. It was the same process except one thing, these chicks are nice while the first batch were mean. The largest chick, we named Buddy, is a rooster but he is gentler than the first three. There is a pure white one who is sweet and shy. The third one is small but Very brave, and she has specks of brown on her neck. After a few weeks, Buddy looked after the girls. Later, we tried to move them to the coop with the older hens, but again the older hens picked on the younger three. So they lived in the run until they grew bigger and stronger, then we successfully put them with the older chickens. After a few months, the girls started laying Green and Blue eggs!
Mint 2 Bee 