A little backstory may help.

For my AP Environmental Science class, is is a requirement that each student do a research project. For my project, two friends and I wanted to test to see if the gender of the human has any effect on how well a chick will imprint. This means we spent three long weeks rotating eggs in an incubator waiting for hatching day. The three of us began our project, and as of right now the chicks have taken best to the guy.

Raising these guys for the past two weeks has led me to tell you 14 of the many things that they have taught me:

1. If you don’t have a good name, you won’t have a good chick.

2. Every bird has their own distinct personality already. For example, Fig is very calm and enjoys snuggling up in your hand but Newt wants to explore and will have nothing to do with you.

3. You will get very attached.

4. You will be heartbroken (love you Goose and Gilbert).

5. Sleep is almost nonexistent with the bright heat lamp, the constant moving, and the incessant chirping.

6. Even though they begin to look like tiny, ugly dinosaurs, they are still cute to you.

7. You will be blown away by how smart they can be (shout out to Newt for constantly escaping).

8. You will worry, worrying if they’re warm enough, if they have enough food and water, if they’re sleeping enough or too much.

9. You will feel proud when they begin to flap their wings and fly up to perch.

10. You’ll want to show them off, while they’re sleeping or just hanging out.

11. You’ll get grossed out by the amount of times you have to clean their cage.

12. Their chirps will make you run to see if they’re okay.

13. When they begin to flap their wings, you’ll think they are fighting each other.

14. You’ll want to hatch more and ditch schooling to have a farm full of animals.