The Diary of A Future Chick

translated from French by Elena Malec

Little Chick growing big...

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 need only to watch

carefully that the level of

moisture in the hatchery

stays high and the temperature

be 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  imagine how  inside

the egg  our chick

is growing fast.

the egg in its 13th day

air pocket

the egg in its 15th 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

for pecking 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

wriggling or even swiveling...

That's the chick working hard

his way out.

Some of the illustrations on this page come from the original version of LE JOURNAL D'UN FUTUR POUSSIN.

finally the big day...