As expected, the eggs under the broody hen began hatching this morning. I was outside doing chores and cleaning up the garage for a long time and heard nothing. I finally peeked under the hen and all these teetering yellow fluffballs started peeping. My heart almost burst from a combination of gratitude, excitement, and awe.
I can’t really explain this emotion I get from hatching chicks, but it’s addictive and drug-like and makes me feel better than few other things. I suspect it stems from bearing witness to the divine, to seeing something so commonplace and taken-for-granted as a chicken egg turn, in just twenty days, into a walking, chirping, perfectly formed and bright-eyed living being.
I don’t consider myself particularly religious, and I don’t have children and probably never will. But I imagine that what I feel watching these chicks develop in their eggs and hatch is a microcosm of both experiences. A microcosm of a miracle. So infinitesimal, and so huge.
Wow! Congratulations on all the adorable little chicks!
Congrats Erika! They are gorgeous. Twenty days blows my mind as well. Miracle indeed.
So cool! Glad you have babies this year as well! I like how they go from wet and ratty looking to soft and fluffy.
[...] two little pullets that hatched in March are twelve weeks old today. I know it’s poor judgement on my part, especially given a [...]