Today was hatching day and our first chick arrived! A chick has an egg tooth, a hard point on it's beak, that helps it to poke through the membrane and shell where it has been living for the past 21 days. Our first chick began poking at it's shell at 8:15 this morning. We watched it all day as it peeped and wiggled in it's shell for hours, resting often. This initial pecking is called "pipping". It seemed as if the hatching was not progressing very quickly and by 3:00 the same little hole we saw in the morning was the only evidence of the life inside. As the students left for home, they all stopped by the incubator to say "good-bye" and give words of encouragement to the little chick. I think their encouraging words were heard because when I returned to the classroom after dismissal at 3:10, the chick had made a significant crack! Over the next 45 minutes the chick made a "zipper" around the egg and pushed it's way out. By 4:00, the wet chick had joined the world, loudly peeping all the while! It took about 8 hours of hard work to get to it's birthday! It will spend tonight in the incubator drying and resting. We will began making a brooder for it in the morning.
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