Chicken update

Well.... today I opted to go against mother nature and "help" a chick out. We still have our 4 chicks healthy as can be and they are actually beginning to molt already and get their real chicken feathers in on their wings (which is when I'm ready to say "good bye" - they will leave us on Friday).

But... remember the chick I wrote about on Thursday that was almost ready to fully hatch... well... it didn't progress at all in the last 5 days. BUT BUT BUTTTTT - it was still breathing and trying ALLLL day today. So, around 1:15 I bumped into another teacher and mentioned that I might want to help it out. She was alll for it. With some craft sticks (popsicle sticks hahaha) she pried open the egg (remember.. over half of it was already cracked off) and we had a sweet little chick inside that was in need of some help. We are thinking that before it could fully hatch out on Thursday it had pooped in the egg and the poop dried with the chick still in it... hence making the egg itself stick to the poor chick. So, whenever it would try to get out it would get stuck and pulled back together. Poor little thingggg.

We got it fully out, peeled off as much of the egg shell as we could, and put him into a separate box from the rest of my chicks because we felt they might attack it. He was in desperate need of water so with an eye dropper we dropped little bits of water and he guzzled them right up. As of right now he has been out of the egg for 5 hours and is still going strong. My friend had the same problem with one of her chicks so she took them both home for the night to watch them and help them out. Mine has since been able to stand up and take a couple steps, but hers isn't doing as well.

What did/will I tell the kids? Well, discussing the topic of death, whether it be a pet or a human, I feel is something to be discussed at home if possible. I am worried that too many kids would bring up God and that is just not something we can technically discuss and it is always tricky when a teacher has to avoid it in a nice manner without making the kids feel uncomfortable. So, I opted to tell them that IF the chickens ever needed some extra help I would call up the farmer we got them from and she would come after school to get them and take them back to the mother hen because sometimes she can help them out more than people. I thought that was the best way to remove the sick chickens (or dead) from the classroom.

I'll keep you posted on them!!!