Easter chicks with Living Eggs
What a fantastic Easter we have had at The Lawns, with our very own Easter chicks!
We have taken part in an egg hatching and rearing programme through Living Eggs https://www.livingeggs.co.uk/
Hatching the eggs
Living Eggs provided 10 eggs, which were embryo eggs, about 2-3 days away from hatching. The eggs were in a thermostatically controlled incubator and we also had a poster guide to show the stages of the chicks development within the egg. It was with much anticipation that we then had to wait for the chicks to hatch.
The kit
The incubator
In true Lawns style, we kept ourselves busy over the 2-3 days wait. Our residents enjoyed some Easter crafting with Jackie, making Easter bonnets. Our chef Anita, baked hot cross buns and Easter biscuits to decorate and Pippa, from church, brought our residents Easter crosses. All the while we kept a close eye on the incubator through the perspex viewing hatch. Before long, there was a chip, chip, chipping away of a shell and the first of our chicks arrived. He was named Choco by our resident Enid.
One of our chicks!
Choco was quickly followed by Chicken Little, Lorna, Eggie, Skye and Chuck. By Good Friday, we only had one chick left to hatch. It was such a fantastic experience for our residents to see. Sylvia and Enid stayed up one night to watch one of the chick hatching. We had lots of fun thinking of names for the chicks. Soldier (as in, boiled egg and soldiers) and Nando (as in, the well known chicken restaurant!) were just two of the more amusing suggestions. We have also had lots of egg related puns! No yolk – it has been a cracking time!
Rearing the chicks
Once hatched and fluffed up, we could transfer the chicks to the brooder box. This was complete with a heat light, bedding, feed and water bowl to allow residents easy observation.
We regularly posted updates and videos of the chicks progress on our Facebook page. It was wonderful for so many children and their families to visit the chicks. We ran a colouring competition for the children, who were given a chocolate egg as a thank you for bringing their pictures back to show our residents. The children enthralled our residents, particularly little Lilly who, aged just 4 years old, sang us her chicken song and was a total star.
Residents took it in turns to look after the chicks, making sure they had enough bedding, food and water. They gave us so much enjoyment over Easter. Everyone was able to hold them and feel their soft down. We took the chicks for regular visits to residents nursed in the rooms, so everyone was included in the fun. The chicks were collected and re-homed on 6 April and we are missing their little cheeps!
Delighting in our new chicks
Stroking their down
Easter activities
Lots of our Easter activities were chicken themed, as you can imagine! We even had a “net an egg” tournament – our take on “hook a duck”! It got very competitive. Enid won, taking 40 seconds to get all the eggs in her net. One resident’s husband said he had not heard his wife laugh so much for a long time.
It was a lovely Easter time at The Lawns. A time for bringing together family and friends, young and old, for love and happiness and for new life. The true Easter message. Thank you to everyone at The Lawns for making Easter such a special time for our residents.