Seeing chickens hatch has been a dream for Stephanie Theriault since she missed out on the opportunity as a first grader because only a few classrooms at her school could host chicks.
“I was devastated and held on to that disappointment clearly into my adult life,” Theriault said, “and I was thinking, ‘Wait a minute. We can do that here. We could hatch them here.’”
Theriault, preschool services coordinator for the Orland Park Public Library, did just that in 2022, and the children’s department has been hatching chicks every April since.
The Children’s Farm in Palos Park provides six eggs to the library, and they go into an incubator the library bought online.
The device is “digitally preset to the optimal temperature and humidity conditions for hatching hen eggs,” Theriault explained. “After the chicks hatch, we will move them into a brooder, a space where they have access to food, water and a heat plate for warmth, where they will remain for the rest of their time at the library.”
She said the project educates children about the lifecycle of a chicken from egg to chick.
“They get to see up close, and in real time, what it takes for a successful hatch,” she said.
Wiggling and chirps are the start of the process.
“One of the things I didn’t realize is that you can hear them cheeping inside their eggs. It’s crazy. You’re seeing the eggs wiggle and you can hear cheeping. They haven’t hatched yet but you can hear them,” she said. “Once we hear that, we know it’s starting. I’ll usually send out an email to staff to let them know that we have cheeping. …. It’s pretty loud.”
Staff monitor the water level in the incubator to make sure the humidity level is correct. Once the chicks hatch, they maintain the brooder by changing the paper inside twice daily and checking on the food and water.
“Baby chicks aren’t the cleanest of animals,” Theriault said with a laugh.
The Children’s Farm provides chick starter feed, and the chicks eat throughout the day.
“Every so often they’ll come out and it’s like the power of suggestion,” she said. “One comes out and starts eating, and then everyone comes out and then they’ll go back to the heat plate and take their nap.”
Beyond the science lesson, however, is the fun of watching the process.
“I like the joy it brings to the patrons and the staff. Everyone is so excited to see the eggs arrive and even more delighted once the chicks hatch,” Theriault said. “The adults are just as excited as the kids. And of course I love to see the sweet baby chicks cheeping around after they hatch.”
This year’s chicks hatched April 15 and stayed at the library for about a week. They were taken back to the Children’s Farm April 22. Sadly, only three of the six eggs hatched this year.
“We always hope all six will hatch, but that’s up to Mother Nature,” Theriault said.
The Evergreen Park Public Library began hatching chicks in 2022 with six eggs from the Children’s Farm and an incubator bought online.
The incubator and brooder are kept at the Children’s Services desk and chicks are cared for by staff. The brooder, made with a large plastic tub, is equipped with pine shavings, a heating plate and a food and water bowl, said Laura Meyer, children’s librarian.
“We clean the brooder every day once the chicks are hatched and give them fresh food and water,” Meyer said.
Her favorite aspect of the project is how involved patrons become.
“After the chicks hatch, we get an uptick of visitors to the library to see the chicks,” she said. “I always enjoy spending time with these visitors of all ages.”
The project definitely creates some buzz for the library.
“We had people in the winter ask us if we were going to hatch chicks again this year. They enjoy the library chicks,” Meyer said.
The chicks were expected to start hatching April 22, and some of the eggs were starting to rock a bit on that day. Once they hatch, they’ll stay at the library for about two weeks before going back to the Children’s Farm.
Staff enjoy the chicks just as much as the patrons.
“The chicks are so cute and fun to watch,” Meyer said. “They grow very fast. Last year, a staff member used our 3-D printer to build a little bridge for the birds to climb.”
Theriault said the hatching process can take a while.
“There are some where you’ll see a little tip in the egg and think they’re starting. Then there will be a chunk and another chunk and another egg will have a crack in it and that egg will hatch but the other one doesn’t,” she shared. “It takes a lot of strength to hatch. It can vary. We’ve had ones that have hatched as short as 30 minutes and others take hours.”
Once hatched, the newborn chicks soon recover.
“You’re supposed to leave them in the incubator for a while,” she said. “They lose their downy feathers pretty quickly. By the time we’re bringing them back to the Children’s Farm by day five or six, you can already see their feathers coming out.”
The fluffed chicks move to the brooder, but patrons, both children and adults, aren’t allowed to hold them and staff members mostly do so after hours.
“There are times when I’ve taken a chick out and let the kids look at it closer up, but typically we try to keep them in the brooder,” Theriault said. “They do like it when the kids come up to it.”
She said she is grateful for the Children’s Farm’s help with the project, especially that the chicks have a home to go to.
“It’s so wonderful when we get chicks to return to the Children’s Farm. It’s a place a lot of our patrons are familiar with. We always tell them if you want to see our chicks once they grow up, they’ll be at the Children’s Farm.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
