Turkeys!

 

The Schlerf's decided to "foster" some Turkey eggs, and invited us to share in that experience.  They borrowed an incubator and rotated the eggs for 2 weeks.  We were able to "candle" the eggs and see if they were growing-many science lessons learned from that.



 

Then one day we got a call that they were hatching! It was almost just as exciting as a baby coming. We ran over there and watched the miracle of life.  As a turkey chick hatches, they will peck away at the egg in a complete circle, all around the egg.  The process takes a little bit of time, and if you can't help the chick get out or else they will not survive. We learned this first hand when we helped one little turkey who had gotten most of the shell off of him...he ended up dying later because he didn't go through the full struggle to make him strong. Some of the chicks pecked a small hole and stuck their beaks out and just chirped...and then they gave up because it was too hard....and they died inside the egg, with their beaks out of the egg. 

This really impacted Kennedy.  She related it to her Swim team experience.  If she had given up and quit swim team, she would never have progressed or would have "died" a little.  And that by going through hard things, we are made stronger and it helps us to become better people and to grow in other areas. For this alone I will always be grateful for little Turkeys.