Which came first?

So the first attempt with the egg incubator just didn't work. Temperature, humidity, fertility..... all pretty important factors. BUT, the second batch did work. We now have four little chicks of indeterminate breed running around in our chick nursery. Three of them came out yellow like the one pictured above and the fourth is a rather beautiful blueish grey.

It was fabulous to watch them hatching (did you know that you can hear the chick cheeping when it's still inside the shell?) although the temptation to help is very great but not entirely helpful. They peck away at the shell and membrane over several hours before they finally release themselves in a small heap of wet leggy greyness. They very quickly make the transition from exhausted, straggly chick to a fluffy little yellow bundle.

The incubator is going to be switched on again at Easter when I've saved up a few more eggs to put inside. Seems an appropriate time of the year to do it.

Although the weather is brightening by the day here in Cornwall, there is still a need for a cosy hat or two. I knit this quick button band hat - the Robin's Egg Blue Hat - for the BB using a self-striping chunky yarn that I found locally. Happy yarn or somesuch name. The BB is reading one of her braille books there in the picture. She has such clever reading fingers - the braille is incredibly fine to the touch. My fingers simply can't recognise the difference between the letters. We like to find braille wherever we go - in lifts, in the bank, on packaging. Look out for it when you are out and about.

Posted by Anita at March 31, 2009 06:01 PM