Ended 2013 Easter Hatch-a-long "Short Story Contest!"

[chickenbaby9194]

I love hatching chicks because it is such a wonderful thing to get to experience in a lifetime. Not only are you witnessing the miracle of life but you are getting to raise these babies to full grown chickens who can repeat the process only to witness it again. The anticipation of waiting for the new life form to finish developing inside the delicate egg is excitement alone. When you have those chicks and they are looking up at you and loving you, you can't help but love them back. All I want to do when they finally hatch is play with them. I want everything for my baby chicks, Annette, Cuddles, Baby, and Highlights and I want them to have the best life. I want those chickens to always feel safe with me in knowing that I will not allow anything harmful to happen to them. I want the best food for them, the best toys, the best warmth, and the best love I can give them. Hatching chicks is amazing but getting to spend time with the tiny life form everyday is the miracle I have discovered and I can not wait to repeat the process again.

 

[NicoleRook]

Little baby Eggies​

Good night my little dear ones, numbered one to twenty two. Maybe tommorrow will be your hatching party, we eagerly await you. You arrived so many days ago, Fedexed from there to here. We had no clue we'd love you all...and that you'd be so dear.

'Good night little Eggies' Baby sister says each and every night, and then we tell stories about Chickies, to baby sisters dear delight.

We talk of feathers and mother hens, and roosters that crow loudly. We talk of spring, and mother natures gifts....these eggs are her perfect bounty.

Little sister may have fingers instead of wings, but she will sing to you goodnight dear eggies, Twinkle Twinkle little star, and blow you a kiss as we tuck you in nightly.

She's a tiny little girl of two, who's eagerly awaiting you. A new feathered friend to love, her love for you is true blue.

Big brother put his games away, the xbox has become dusty. He's in love with your tiny shell, and is preparing for your arrival thusly.

Each night when he awakens, he checks to make sure your cozy. Nice and warm and humid in your special room, he watches over you carefully.

Brother has big plans for you to join him, every day he'll rise early. He wants you to meet him at the door, when his bus arrives quiet timely. You'll sit upon the porch with him, while he plays for you a tune on his guitar. Maybe he'll play the chicken dance and sister can perform with you like a star.

At first Daddy was unsure what changes these little eggs might bring, but under neath his rough exterior I know you'll make his heart sing.

Daddy is now sitting up tonight, wiring up your brooder. Your safety and comfort is his first concern, and he worries for you nightly. He will check you at 8, 9 and 10...until his eyes fall sleepy and says, night nighty.

Mommy dotes upon you daily, checking you to make sure your comfy. Carefully with steady hands she turns each shell so gently.

Mommy talks of things to come and all the love that awaits her birdies. Warm and safe she tucks you in, and with baby now sings 'Good night nighty'.

'Peep Peep', you sang today outloud and Mandy the dog did answer, she whined and paced and laid near you, I believe she thinks she's your mother.

Our love for these tiny eggs has brought us closer together. Little eggs, so perfectly sweet.
We soon hope to know you better, please hatch and make our family complete.

.
Baby sister waiting for her 'eggies' to hatch.​

 

[Roxannemc]

When I was little I would play house with my friends. I was always the mother! No one else, just me! I dreamed of being a mom. At 25 I became a mom for real for the very first time. Then again at 27 & 29. That would be "It" for me. But, as my littlest was preparing to go to kindergarten, my heart ached, and I pleaded with my husband to let me have just one more. So, at 34 I became a mom yet again. My baby is 3 now, and I know that there won't be any more babies. My older children are wonderful, and growing. A part of growing is that they need me less and less each day. I need to be needed.

The first chicks I ever owned were bought from a hatchery. I just wanted chickens, no big plan. Their arrival was as exciting as the birth of a new baby. I sat by the brooder window staring for hours. Content to just watch them sleep, or play, or eat, or poop. Didn't matter. They just made me happy.

One fine day a lady I knew offered me a free styrofoam Little Giant Incubator. I took it of course, it was free! I then scoured Craigslist for some hatching eggs, and Voila! My first hatch had begun. I loved hand turning. Those eggs needed me 3 times a day! I monitored the temperatures and the humidity without fail. Candling and finding living babies inside, YAY!! Waiting, turning, waiting, turning! Days coming and going, and then hatch day arrives. The first pip brings anxiety, excitement, & a long sleepless night. Morning comes and with it the first zip. I watch intently as that first chick unwraps itself from that egg we both know so well. One by one they come tumbling out, silly, drunken little things. I fall in love with each one. I know them personally. I have already known them for 21 days. I know them from birth, who is strong, who is weak, who cries the loudest. They are my babies and they need me.

They grow, they move out of the house, they need me less and less. More like friends than babies anymore. Too much like my children.....

So..................I scour Craigslist for some hatching eggs..................................

I hatch because I am a Mom at heart. I hatch because I need to be needed...






I really love yours it almost brought me to tears.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote:
Thank You.

 

[Roxannemc]

SMALL WONDERS

Let’s be frank. You’ve seen the inside of an egg: big yellow bag of pus awash in a sea of slimy snot. No chick in there, nothing even remotely resembling a chick. Nothing but glop and goo. But put a fertilized egg under a setting hen and three weeks later watch what happens: out pops a wobble-legged chick, wet, blinking, bedraggled—now dry, fuzzy, fluffy, ready to run, scratch and come to mother’s call. It boggles the mind.

It’s the miracle of becoming, the wonder that anything at all comes of it. That it happens hidden from view, inside, in silence, over time, under steady heat—this is part of the magic, a re-ordering of the world as it is, was, will be. Life emerges, asserts itself: hopeful, hungry, here.

Small wonder I find in the chick’s hatching lessons for dealing with dark days. Small wonder I love hatching chicks. Small wonders—every one of those little peeps— each sounding out a super-size message of hope in hard times.

Properly tended, a fertilized egg can go from glop to ooh! in three weeks. In the time it takes for me to run out of clean socks and get around to doing laundry, a miracle occurs in the coop. The broody hen takes to her nest and once again the Great Mystery unfolds: Jesus is sealed in the tomb; Persephone returns to the underworld; the black bear curls into her long sleep. All is death, destruction, disappearance. But no, look again and life comes peeping out all around: bright sunlight cracks the Easter sky, daffodils poke through cold hard ground, roly-poly bear cubs waddle the woods.

The chicken version of this sacred drama involves a hen dead-set on hatching a clutch of eggs. A near-fanatical glint appears in her eye. Approached by rooster, hen or human, she raises her hackles and utters a cry of righteous reproach. The call to motherhood is serious business, requires dedication, steely resolve, trance-like focus. Once she goes to setting, the broody hen stays on her nest for three weeks. Three weeks straight. If the eggs go cold, the life inside will die. She isn’t about to let this happen. She plucks feathers from her breast so as to apply direct body heat. Several times a day she turns each egg, using her head and beak. This keeps the developing embryos from sticking to the shells’ inner membranes. Once every 24 hours she gets up to eat, drink and take her daily constitutional. Otherwise, she stays put.

When a hen starts setting I make a note on our kitchen calendar and write “Hatch Day” in the square three blocks below it. Then I listen. A few days before the blessed event, the eggs start peeping. The hen answers back with soft clucking sounds. Scientists say she’s giving her chicks specific details about the world they will soon face. Me, I suspect she having them synchronize their internal cell phones so they’ll all hatch out about the same time. Wouldn’t surprise me if the chick with nascent leadership skills volunteers to go first.

Whump. The chick uses its egg tooth, a sharp temporary nail at the tip of its beak, to poke through the air sack at the end of its world, then scribe a rough line round the egg’s middle. It thrusts with its feet, pushes with its skull, at last pokes its head out of the shell. Whump. More wriggling, squiggling and finally the chick extricates itself. Whump. The entire process can take up to 14 hours. But at last a wet bedraggled ragamuffin appears—an unassuming conqueror who has dared split the known world open at its seams and step into a vastness beyond imagining. When privileged to watch this process, I feel compelled almost to take off my shoes. Like Moses on the mountain, the place I stand is holy ground.

I was 35, very religious and very repressed when I came out to myself and others as a gay man. Whump. The only world I knew fell apart around me; one I’d never imagined opened up before me. I think of this now, and of the hen setting on her nest, those times when all’s gone dark and broody, when it seems nothing will ever change. I tell myself I know better. I’ve been witness to wonder. What looks—feels, tastes, smells—like muck and mire may very well be a miracle in the making.

LIke this very much .Graphically interesting wonderfully introspective and ingenious parallel

 

[Roxannemc]

Lots of fun reading them all Thanks and GOOD LUCK to the winner!!!

 

[chickzndahood]

nothing to lose 
                                                                                         Willow

        It all started when my very first mail-order chicks came. They were all New Hampshire Reds and Black Australorps. We didn't order very much though. We ordered 10 pullets, but apparently there was one male in there by accident because one early morning there was a loud crowing. Eventually one of the roosters mated with one of my hens and so my hen laid eggs. I decided to keep one of them to incubate and I definitley don't regret it at all. 21 days later, I saw the egg squirming with the the frail chick inside. I watched and watched until what seemed forever, a small beak poked through and made a hole in the shell. After a little while later, the hole turned into a crack and the crack got a little bigger. A couple hours later, the crack got all around the egg and there a small foot stuck out. When the the chicks head managed to get out, I, in my own opinion, this was the absolute best part of having chickens. Despite all the noise, and poop, It was totally worth waiting for the moment that first chick hatches. It gave me pleasure, and warmth just knowing the chick was there. I later named her Willow and the flock accepted her with pride. She was a strong baby chick until one day she just walked around slowly and stopped eating, but she still drank some water. This happened for a couple days until I found her dead while she was sleeping. It was a sad moment for the whole flock and me. I thought how she was such a livley little chick. But when she stopped eating, I could just see that look in her eyes. I looked all over the internet but I just couldn't find any answers. I continued to incubate eggs and I often thought about naming one of them Willow. 

 

[Sueg4332]

HOME SWEET EGG

There is a limit to hatching and keeping chickens ...there really is...I think that limit is when cute baby chicks get so old living inside with you they are laying eggs in your bathroom.IT HAPPENED TO ME'

Now I never meant for this to happen ...i didnt ...i was incubating eggs spring, Summer came.All of a sudden fall was upon us so as any responsible person would do..I cleaned out the bator put it away deep in the closet DONE. and smuggly patted myself on the back


BUt the itchy addicted person that i AM i was in deep withdrawl, 2 weeks went by i was gritting my teeth ... Then a fluke of fate happened someone GAVE me eggs .... that is GAVE as in FREE.!. Saying NO would be SO impolite So out came the not--even-close-to-dusty bator
i reasoned still time to grow them out and outside right?
then an epiphany ...As long as some eggs are coming anyway? ..... why not get a FEW more?

Bamb out of nowhere ....it was Dec and cold.
NOting to do but built a big cage in my bathroom over my "luxury garden tub".(who needs a tub anyway?) then a double decker cage for the second hatchlings which were shooting up fast.
A third cage had to go in the corner of the bath (now bator room ) as an earlier hatch didnt produce any results....Cant end on a sour note can you? bought more eggs of course
.
My reasonable expectation was surely an early spring like last year ... you know global warming ? early spring JUST around the corner ? No worries.
However sweet green spring became more like the frozen tundra .. cold... snow... 20 degrees one whole day of sun in a month .and the days marched along as the chickens hunkered in .
One very early Feb morning ...i woke from a cozy warm dreamless chickenless sleep to crowing......CROWING? WHAT? not outside but IN....( GOOD god what have i done?)


I felt like some nomad in a hut in the Andes Mountains chickens running amuck inside all the rooms
And worse my chicken disaproving children will be siging me up for the funny farm any day now .Sure enough im on the phone with one when ol bigmouth crows...
"Is that CROWING in your house?"
No!! thats just....ah.... just chicken tv !..
(NOT a BYC-er he doesnt have any idea what chicken tv really is.)...

Now each dark late March morning comes in with a daily crowfest next to my bedroom door by not one but 2 cockrels which accompanied soon by a third who is gearing up his squawky voice as we speak .... and blucking..... That isnt BLUCKING? all coming from that bathrooms" luxury garden tub"?
.
So it wasnt a huge suprising when today on this snowy morning in late March I walked in the bath now batoroom looked at the "luxury garden tub" and was greeted with a (wait for it) ...... egg.
Even this egglet will never believe his beginnings :"Mommy where was i born?"



Needless to say NEVER AGAIN will i hatch a chick after August ...no i Promise . REALLY!! PROMISE But i may have to send the bators to my daughters 4 hours away to keep from doing so.......... and all the coolers too.Just as a precaution,
If you ponder it though a chickless eggless winter would be a pretty boring uneventful time and I might miss that crowing after all

You just wrote story of my life. lol my daughter thinks I'm insane.... promise wouldn't hatch this year Ha Ha on my third hatch 2013. And yes the wheaten marans are still laying eggs, I try to sell the wheatens but if they dont sell by the time the eggs are to old they must go in the bator. it would be ashane not to hatch those beautiful eggs. Oh the cochin batams are starting to lay eggs those are just to cute not to hatch.
I did have to laugh daughter came over the other day she looked at chicks and ask( where is the cute little feather footed ones I like those. She is coming around. lol

 

[Happy Chooks]

This contest is closed for judging. Thank you for all of the entries!

 

[Roxannemc]

You just wrote story of my life. lol my daughter thinks I'm insane.... promise wouldn't hatch this year Ha Ha on my third hatch 2013. And yes the wheaten marans are still laying eggs, I try to sell the wheatens but if they dont sell by the time the eggs are to old they must go in the bator. it would be ashane not to hatch those beautiful eggs. Oh the cochin batams are starting to lay eggs those are just to cute not to hatch.
I did have to laugh daughter came over the other day she looked at chicks and ask( where is the cute little feather footed ones I like those. She is coming around. lol

I know this wasnt exactly " WHY you enjoy hatching "as the story is supposed to be but then it is about the consequences when you DO enjoy it . even to me ...im a nut...and this egg episode did happen just last weekend.

Yep i dont know why once you start you just cant stop!
And Im the same it would be sacrilege to eat one of my fertile eggs!! They HAVE to go in the bator or be sold.I was thinking the other day i might have to go BUY some eggs(15 grown chickens outside 2 laying inside) if i want some for the table .all are getting put in the bator or sold. And i KNOW MYSELF its just craziness. but what can you do?
At least BYCers who incubate understand and arent totally shocked like non chicken ppl are