Friday, April 08, 2005
This morning Hunter snuck downstairs to play a round of Roller Coaster Tycoon before school. Within minutes he came running back upstairs to tell us there was a chick in the incubator. We ran downstairs and sure enough there was a chick hobbling around the incubator, peeping. We all huddled around the incubator and after about ten minutes I noticed another egg was hatching. The chick in this egg burst forth with life and half an hour later had already established the pecking order and was busy putting number one in its place. About another half an hour later, egg number three was pipped and the excitement level at our home was outrageous.
Now, at the end of the day things have calmed down a bit and things are looking like this: Chick number one was named after Hunter, the hero of the day for discovering our babies. We call him/her "Hero." Unfortunately, like our chick number one, Hero seems to have a few disabilities and hasn't figured out how to walk yet. I'm not sure he/she will. Hero just flops around from place to place, unable to hold up its head or walk on its feet. As a result, I'm not sure he/she will ever be able to get a drink of water, which is crucial for its survival. Chick number two was named by Noah--we call him/her "Lucky." Lucky has some serious spice for life and hops around the brooder, pecking at everything in sight (including poor Hero), eating and drinking and calling out for company. Denver is smitten by the little bird and a couple of times today I found him in the guest bedroom with the door shut, I'm sure, trying to pick the bird up. Chick number three, well. . . he/she's still struggling to hatch. We've named him "Jack Jack" after the baby on The Incredibles. He seems full of life--peeping really loud and looking around but he's just stuck. I helped him a little, around 4pm, but nothing's changed since then and I'm not sure it will. We'll see what the morning brings. And last but not least--looks like egg number four just pipped a little while ago. We'll hope for another "Lucky hatch" in the morning. Until then, here's a few snapshots of our newest additions to the family--Lucky and Hero. (Hero is the red one in the the last picture. All the rest are of Lucky.)
    
posted by Shana # 9:05 PM 
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