The Diary of
a Future Chick
by the children at Alexandra’s garden
translated from
French by Elena Malec
And the big day is here…
“We are now getting closer to the big day…
May 11, it’s full moon …and we are ready to discover the
world! However we know that the children will not come until Wednesday, May 13th.Sorry!
We can’t help it…one little peck …and we pierced the eggshell for a breath of fresh
air…It is 11 o’clock. We have still enough strength before breaking out of the
shell;
Out of 12 eggs three of us were in a big hurry. At 1 PM
three more chicks joined us. The other chicks will wait for the night to join
the crowd.On Tusday May 12th, Alexandra discovered three lovely
one-day old chicks
outside their shells, still drowsy after this big
adventure. This morning she will record live on video the arrival of two more
chicks.We have to show the children that we were able to do it by ourselves.
We are already five to huddle; the light bulb in the
hatchery still flashing to keep the temperature at 99 degrees F. which we need.
Six more chicks were born this afternoon; only one could not make it.We will be
a large family of 11 little ones: hens or roosters…?We know it, but neither
Alexandra nor the children will know it for several weeks.
This evening, still Tuesday,
May 13th we were moved into a nest box
where we can freely wriggle about, peck some, drink a bit because
we had a tough day and also a hot one; we shall rest under the lamp that
provides us with the warmth the hen had given us, which is called a candling
lamp.
This lamp will keep us warm for a whole week, mostly at
night.
We are happy to be here…but tomorrow afternoon we will be
more so when we will show the children what we could do because we had their
support during these three weeks.
From here we will move to the coop maybe in a month; and
when they will come every Wednesday to Alexandra’s it will be our turn watching
them at work in
the flower garden and the kitchen garden and we will be
saying: keep up the good job!
One-day old chicks growing big…
the two Thomas, Ariane, Aline, Virginie, Jerome and Laurencia…
Some of the
illustrations on this page
come from the
original version of
LE JOURNAL D’UN FUTUR POUSSIN
