Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The excitement of pipping and hatching: on around day 18 of our sitting, the developing chicks start to pip, this means they break through the membrane in the shell and start to breathe the air at the top of the egg. At this stage we start talking to them and they start talking to us: it is all very exciting!!

The next stage is the hardest for them as they have to now break through the shell itself (usually done around day 21). Mother nature is wonderful though as she has provided them with an egg tooth which is hard and pointed and acts a bit like a pick axe crossed with a saw, allowing the chick to firstly make a hole in the shell and then saw his/her way through.

It's jolly hard work for them and when they eventually break out they are really tired. They are also very wet as they are covered in the remains of the egg... at this stage it has to be said, they don't look at all cute and fluffy!!!