Cracking News!

Many readers will have been following the progress on Instagram of the eggs that arrived at the beginning of the week.

Our Reception classes recently embarked on a fascinating journey into the world of chick development! They began with a dozen fertile eggs, provided by the Living Eggs company. The eggs were delivered on Monday, having been carefully placed inside a cozy incubator. For almost 21 days prior to their arrival in school, the embryo chicks had been developing inside the warm incubator. We knew that the eggs would begin to crack and the chicks would be eager to hatch within a couple of days. Throught the day on Monday, the children observed the eggs with a sense of wonder, eager to witness the miracle of life unfold.

A tiny crack appeared on one of the eggshells on Wednesday morning and the excitement levels rose as we knew that we were going to see our first chick hatching.

Later in the morning out came a fluffy yellow chick – well, it wasn’t very fluffy at the moment of hatching but later on after its soft feathers had dried the cuteness level soared and we had a delightful fluffy chick.

We set up an iPad to film the progress of the hatching.

As the hours went by, more eggs started to crack and the incubator was filled with downy feathers among the broken eggshells. Ten chicks in total emerged from their shells, chirping and exploring their new environment. There are five yellow chicks and five whose feathers were a sandy brown colour.

The weekend arrived and the chicks had been moved from their warm incubator into a box that was also kept warm from the heat of a special lamp inside the box.

Reception teacher, Mrs Plane, had the job of taking the eggs home to look after them safely for the weekend. It looks like the Plane family were excited about welcoming these visitors into their home.

Despite the wet and chilly weather at home time on Friday, the chicks stayed warm in their box and were soon settled into their new surroundings with the warmth of the light restored after the short drive home.

In the videos below, you can see our chicks settling down on Sunday evening for a good night’s sleep ready for their return to school on Monday morning to spend more time with our Reception pupils.

The chicks will be back in school on Monday for a few more days. We will continue to publish updates on our Instagram page while the chicks are with us.