Finally the snow and ice have melted and gone, and we find that spring is really here. The sunshine is warm at last. The breezes are gentle and refreshing.
I always love to get pictures of Penny with the first blooms because I am so eager to see color after the cold harsh winter. What welcome cheer!
These mini daffodils are just her size.
Welcoming joyful blooms!
Now I’ll take you back a few years to some happy hatchings. I had this incubator set up to hatch some silkie chicks. Silkies are a favorite bantam chicken of mine. Their feathers are soft and hairy making them quite a novelty. They are naturally gentle and friendly.
After 21 days in a warm, moist environment, the chicks can be heard making little peeping noises inside the shell. Then cracks begin to appear where they are poking through with their beaks to come out. Each one has a special “egg tooth” on the end of their beak as a tool to get through the shell.
These eggs are dirty, but its best not to wash them so that the natural coating will protect them inside. Below is the chick at last appearing warm and wet, all perfectly formed and very tired!
And here is the empty shell left over. Isn’t it amazing that God makes them so carefully and delicately alive and functioning sealed inside that shell where we cannot see them?
As hatching day progresses it is a thrill to see shell after shell develop first a little peephole, then a larger crack, and finally open with another live chick emerging.
In the incubator they flop around a bit to try out their limbs and stretch free, then they take frequent naps to gain the energy to move around some more. Once their feathers dry and fluff up, we move them to a large cardboard box with a towel and heat lamp to keep them warm.
Oh, warm and happy, they love to snooze in here. Cozy. Cozy.
The family is growing!
Penny sings a lullaby as they relax and rest together.
Each will grow up to become a big white pom-pom. Here is a picture of the silkie rooster father.
Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
II Corinthians 5:17
