New Beginnings & Newborn Chickens

The residents and our staff members here at Bothwell Castle have been so excited for our Spring initiative; we looked into the life cycle of a fertilised egg and the miracle of nature coming to life.

The incubation period for chicken eggs is usually 21 days. A chicken egg incubator is a device that provides the artificial hatching of eggs. This machine works by providing the correct warmth and humidity to the chicken eggs which has various automatic and manual temperature control options for accurate hatching of eggs.

Our residents took part in ensuring that there was enough water to generate heat within the incubator and within two days our eggs started to hatch. The first sign of hatching our residents noticed is known as pipping, this is when the baby chick breaks a small hole in its shell with its beak. The next stage is called zipping!

During this stage, the chicks started turning inside their shell, before making a full breakthrough! At this time the residents kept a close eye on the eggs as we knew they could be born at any time. The chicks started to peck their way out of their shells, they didn't need any help, although some clucking from our residents did give them some encouragement and reassurance.

Once they were out of their shell, they took a while to recover from all their hard work and they had to dry off in the incubator before being transferred to their special heat lamp.

Our residents loved petting and feeding the baby chickens and our families and residents from the local community also popped into meet our baby chickens who were all named as soon as they were born.

The purpose of this activity was to promote new life skills for our residents, whilst celebrating nature in Springtime it benefited our residents as it helped in developing social skills such as working together to nurture the chicks, team building, organisation, decision making and leadership, for example, who’s in charge of what when it comes to hatching and care for the growing embryos.

Additionally, these chickens can be used as a part of our pet therapy. These little fluff balls lifted our residents' mood and reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation, whilst bring a sense of calm and purity.

If you'd like to know more about activities we put on for our residents at our care home in South Lanarkshire, or how we could help you or your loved one, please don't hesitate to get in contact with us.