When I awoke this morning I was feeling terribly groggy. I knew it was from being up so late last night. A few wild dogs had been trying to break into the coop. We could not sleep while they were there because we were too concerned.

This morning it was very foggy, but since I knew the way to my dust bath by heart, this did not present a problem, thankfully. But when I was about half finished, I found a huge white egg in the loose dirt.

With a flick of my wing, I opened my notebook. After studying a while over this puzzle, I came to the conclusion that this was an ostrich egg.

Rose and Cheery, two of my friends, were at the far end of the field enjoying themselves.

"Rose and Cheery, come here this minute," I snapped.

"We are busy right now," they retorted.

"No fooling around, you foolish chickens," I snapped.

"Aunt Gertrude, why are you so snappy?" Cheery asked.

I found something interesting and I want you to help me take care of it," I called.

Finally, they came to see what I wanted with them. I got them to help me roll the egg into the nursery and into one of the nesting boxes.

I decided Cheery would be the one to try to hatch the egg since she was a good setting hen. She said it was uncomfortable, and I believed her, but I told her that since I was the director of this hatchery, I had to be free to do other jobs.

But then we ran across another problem. The ostrich egg was too big for Cheery to hatch alone. I got Rose to help Cheery with the hatching job.

I fed the two hens twice every day and they did not complain. This went on for several weeks.

At last their work was rewarded. A baby ostrich hatched from the egg. But it was just as big as its foster mothers!

A group of hens gathered by the box the first day. The baby was accepted as one of them, and received a lot of attention. This ostrich lived with us until it was big enough to go into the ostrich house and live with its real parents. I was glad that I had done as much for it as I could.

Have fun visiting with me some more. I have a lot of stories stored away in that big chicken head of mine, so I can probably tell you a story any time. That is until my stories are empty.