Last week we reviewed how a fertile egg is formed inside a mother hen. What takes place after this fertile egg is laid in the nest is also interesting.
The warmth of the mother hen’s body is exactly right to incubate the egg so that it can develop. By only the third or fourth day, it has a backbone, a head with eyes, a brain and a beating heart ... all in something so small you can barely see that it’s there without magnification. By the fifth to seventh day, it has wing and leg buds.
All this growth requires food supplied by the yolk and a constant supply of oxygen inside the egg. The Creator arranged this supply of oxygen by designing the shell with thousands of tiny pores that allow air to pass through, as we learned last week.
The chick is nearly ready to hatch 20 days after it is laid. Then, while still being incubated by the mother and just one day before hatching, the fully formed chick begins to breathe with its lungs for the first time. But it needs more air than can enter through the shell. How does it get more air? The answer is the air pocket at the rounded end of the egg (which we mentioned last week) which has been holding extra air for this time. The little chick’s head has been formed right at this very spot. Its egg tooth, a special tooth formed on the end of its beak just for this last day in the shell, breaks into this air pocket where it finds the air it needs to breathe.
The chick begins to break out of its shell on day 21 by pecking at it after making a first crack in the shell with the egg tooth. The egg tooth drops off within a few hours after the chick hatches. The chick is tired when it first hatches, and it needs a few hours to dry off and rest, but then it’s ready to begin life outside its shell. It carries the last part of the yolk with it after hatching, so it doesn’t need to eat for a few days.
How can anyone doubt that this wonderful process is the result of God’s creation? Aren’t you glad to know it was the Creator, the Lord God, who designed chickens and their eggs for His glory and for our benefit?
The mother hen cares for the eggs until they hatch and then gives the chicks her protecting care. A hen will sacrifice her own life to protect her little chicks. This is a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus who loves and protects us, giving His life so that we may be His. His desire to keep us close to Himself is seen in our opening verse. Have you let Him take you into His loving care?
Did You Know?
The warmth of the mother hen’s body is exactly right to incubate the eggs.
Messages of God’s Love 9/1/2024