Mooney goes wild in St. Tola"s

There was great excitement on Friday morning last when Terry Flanagan, a reporter from the Mooney Goes Wild RTÉ Radio One programme visited senior infants and pupils from first class in St. Tola"s NS to see their newly hatched chicks.The idea began with class teacher Kieran Stenson and parent Richard King, who got the eggs and helped set up the incubator in the classroom for the would-be new arrivals.Each day the eggs were watched carefully, with the children learning something new about chickens as each of the twenty one days passed. Finally on day twenty, a small crack appeared as a tiny beak began the momentous task of freeing itself from its shell.Children came in and out of the school all evening to see if the first chick, now aptly named "Early" would arrive safe and well. Soon there were lots more pecking sounds as each tiny beak began to chip away at its shell.As the chicks hatched, they were visited by another parent, and vet, Laura Drumm. Two days after hatching in the incubator, the chicks moved into a warm box with an infra red light to keep them warm. When they are five weeks old they will move out to a state-of-the-art chicken coop on the grounds of St. Tola"s, made by another parent, John Donlon.There are already lots of volunteers offering to look after them during the summer months as Mr. Stenson goes on a six-week pilgrimage walk to Santiago de Compostela.