==JAPAN: KM== [Pets]

Can you imagine where I first met my Pet Chickens? It was not at the pet shop, but at the supermarket!
I have been keeping many kinds of pets since I was young: dogs, birds, reptiles, insects, and so on. Then I decided to breed chickens about seven years ago, and from the eggs at that. So I went to the supermarket to buy a pack of fertile eggs for 300 yen. There were six eggs in it and I began to warm them up in a small bucket with an electric bulb. The fertile eggs required some special conditions to hatch, such as keeping the temperature at about 37 degrees centigrade, the humidity at about 75 per cent, etc. And I also had to turn them upside down four or five times a day.
After five days, I could see a blood vessel by lighting up one of the eggs from underneath, and after ten days, the unborn chickens twisted their bodies within the eggshell to avoid the brightness. On the 20th day, I saw some of the eggs cracked and trembling a little. Finally, they hatched one after another on the 21th day.
At first the newborn chickens were wet and struggled to stand up, but several hours later they vigorously prowled about and the feathers became bushy. They were so cute that I almost strangled them to death. But unfortunately, one chick could not hatch by himself, and died. He just did not have enough power to hatch, I thought. Maybe I had to help him in place of the hen, or maybe not. I still don't know the answer.
Another misfortune did come some days later. When I let the chicks play in the garden and bask in the sun, I found one of them had disappeared. I was absent only a few minutes, but it was enough time for a cat to find them. At first, I looked about there for the missing chick. But instead of the chick, I found a large white cat who was walking stealthily toward me. The cat ran away at once, so I realized that the cat was aiming at his second victim. I never let the cat get another chance.
As time went on, the four chicks grew rapidly: the combs began to stand out, and the wings grew. I also built a henhouse in order that they could sleep peacefully at night. I found that they were three hens and one cock by their combs. And at last, one of the hens laid the first egg when she was 162 days old. Soon the others started to lay eggs, too. We ate the eggs in various ways and they were delicious as expected. After that, we got three eggs almost every morning. So my mother did not have to buy eggs for several years.
Although I had so many difficulties, this was a precious experience for me; I really enjoyed breeding chickens. I played the part of a parent: for example, they dashed toward the henhouse when I whistled to them in the evening. You can easily experience an event like this if you keep pets and take good care of them, especially when you raise them up from babies or eggs. They say that it is very good for children to keep pets, but it seems to me, this must apply to adults as well. The pets make our life wonderful!

COMMENT
This essay is very interesting. Many people would have experienced raising chickens, but those who have experienced raising chickens from eggs would be few. Therefore, the writer's experience is precious. He had many difficulties in raising chickens, but he must have been impressed all the more for that. By reading this essay, we find the pleasure of raising creatures. If you would like to raise the chickens after reading this essay, let's go to the supermarket and buy eggs!

Tetsuya Nishimura