Brookside is a residential care home in Melksham, we have 48 permanent residents and over the Easter holidays we increased our numbers slightly, we had some visitors from the Living Eggs people, 10 little eggs arrived in their incubator. This in itself caused great curiosity and excitement. Within days the first of the 10 eggs started to hatch and the first little bundle appeared, followed at regular intervals over the next 2 or 3 days by more and more, eventually 10 fluffy yellow balls of fun were transferred into their new temporary home.
The chicks are adorable to watch and very inquisitive, much like our residents! They created a great deal of interest amongst the residents their families and the staff. During the time they were with us we heard a variety of comments from “dear little things” to “my mum used to keep them in the bottom of the oven at home! – to keep them warm” the conversations that were struck up to do with our fluffy visitors were so varied, but there were conversations – often people don’t talk about themselves or their family but these little bundles managed to get everyone chatting about their memories and all they had to do was look cute! Listening to the reminiscing was wonderful to hear and sometimes informative – the bit about keeping them in the bottom of the oven especially.
Boris our guinea pig was very interested in them too and had a good look, not sure if he can count but you could almost hear him saying “I’m sure there was only four yesterday now there’s six?”
Boris enjoys a cuddle with the residents most days and the chicks didn’t seem to mind being handled when they were being cleaned out etc. They certainly were a talking point and we will definitely be booking them for next year too. Quite an informative experience, the wall chart showing the progress of the eggs and the fact sheet that comes with them is very straightforward and the instructions for looking after them are very simple to follow. The people from Living Eggs are always at the end of the phone If there is an issue but, this was not necessary for us as everything went according to plan. We were sad to see our 5 little boys and 5 little girls go. How long until next Easter!
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