Week six - Through the eyes of a child...

There is little more amazing to watch then a child learning... Our experience as leaders in our local 4H club has given us many opportunities to see this first hand. Whether its learning to cook, sew or fix an engine, how to take care of an animal or grow your own food... watching them learn and grow is pretty amazing to see! 

This month we've been hatching chicks and thus have had a number of visitors! 

A couple of the 4Hers have been following the chicks progress and have waited anxiously for their eventual arrival.

The kids have learned how the egg is formed inside the chicken and how often they lay eggs. We have also learned how long it will take for the chick to grow inside the egg (21 days) and finally they've watched them emerge and thrive. 

While they may not grow up to be chicken farmers, they have learned important lessons of life, natural selection and the responsibility of caring for another being. 

Hope they look back on these experiences as fondly as we do... 

Week #3 - A Valentine Chick!

This is our heart egg! 

Due to hatch on Valentine's Day it is just one of our many hatching eggs that we are incubating. This is a bit of new skill for us and we have predictably made a number of mistakes. 

Fertilized eggs needs just the right conditions to hatch... steady temperature between 99-100F, humidity between 60-65% and regular turning (3 times a day). We have a pretty basic incubator that can hatch out up to 60 chicks at a time. 

This year we have a couple of kids from our 4H Club who are following the progress of the eggs from laying to hatching. They are so excited to watch them emerge and are already dreaming up names for each one...

Fingers crossed! With some luck and learning we will see have some fluffy chicks in a few weeks.