The Secret Chicken Society Read Free

We’ll hold a drawing. I’ll put the slips in a jar. When the eggs hatch, we’ll count how many chicks we have. Then we’ll draw that many names. Each person whose name is drawn can pick out a chick.”
    Mrs. Lopez stacked all the slips. She slid them intoa file folder. “Now that we have good homes arranged for each chick, I’ll order the eggs. In the meantime, let’s set up the incubator.”
    The incubator looked like a large spaceship with a clear plastic dome. Mrs. Lopez took off the top. Inside were places for twelve eggs. There was a light bulb to keep the eggs warm. She plugged it in, and showed the class how to set the thermostat.
    â€œOur eggs need a constant temperature of about 100 degrees, give or take a few degrees,” she told them. “We’ll have to check the temperature every day.” She put a thermometer inside.
    There was a water trough, too. Mrs. Lopez filled the container with water to add moisture to the air. “The humidity has to be 58 to 60 percent for the first eighteen days,” she said, putting a gauge next to the thermometer. “We’ll read the gauge every day, and add water if the trough dries up. On day nineteen, we’ll increase the humidity to 65 percent. That will keep the eggs moist so they’ll hatch.”
    In a few days the eggs came. Daniel expected the eggs to be white, like the ones Mom bought at the store. But these eggs were all different. Some were white, but there were brown, green, and blue eggs,too. Some were the size of store eggs, but there were a few smaller ones.
    â€œI ordered mixed breeds,” said Mrs. Lopez. “So we don’t know what the chicks will look like. They are from different breeds of chickens.” She pointed to a poster on the wall. Some chickens had stripes. Some had spots. Some had feathery topknots. Some had feathery legs. “It will be a surprise. I thought that would be more fun,” she added.
    Mrs. Lopez showed them how to place the eggs in the incubator with the small ends pointed slightly down. She marked an X on one side and an O on the other side of each egg. “We have to turn the eggs for the first eighteen days,” she said. “The Xs and Os will remind us which side to face up.”
    The eggs had to be turned three times a day, even on the weekends. First all the eggs had to be turned so the X side was on top. Several hours later, they had to be turned again. This time the Os had to be on top. The small end had to point the same way all the time.
    Daniel pointed to a small brown egg. “That one’s mine,” he said. “That will be my chick.”
    Mrs. Lopez laughed. “I like your enthusiasm. But remember,” she warned, “not all our eggs will hatch.And sometimes even when an egg hatches, the chick dies.”
    Daniel barely heard her. His eyes were glued to the eggs in the incubator. His chick was forming inside one of them. He just knew it.
    For the next twenty-one days, Daniel was in heaven. The class learned a lot of new vocabulary words, like
albumen, embryo
, and
membrane
. Mrs. Lopez handed out egg journals. “We’ll keep track of our data every day,” she told the class. “Write the date, current temperature and humidity, and any changes you observe.”
    On the sixteenth day, Mrs. Lopez showed them how to candle the eggs. “We can see what’s going on inside as the chicks develop,” she told the class. Daniel held an egg up to the flashlight. Inside, he saw the tiny beating heart of the embryo. He drew a picture in his journal.
    On Saturdays, Daniel volunteered to help Mrs. Lopez turn the eggs. At first all the kids wanted to help, but by the second weekend only Daniel and Mrs. Lopez were left.
    â€œAren’t they ever going to hatch?” Daniel asked Mrs. Lopez.

    â€œBe patient,” she said. Daniel sighed. He was tired of being patient.
    After day eighteen, though, they