Nugget

Norah's art teacher this year incubated and hatched chicks and it was the coolest thing to watch. One week when we went to pick up the kids one egg was hatching and so the next hour a few of us moms sat and watched it come out.  I mentioned to her teacher that Joel had been asking for years to incubate eggs and she said we could use all her stuff when she was done.  We just had to find fertilized eggs. That very week I was going to pick up eggs my friend had for me so after that it was hard to say no to the kids. 

We did end up buying our own incubator because after the chicks hatched, my friend said it was gross and hard to clean. Ours wasn't hard to clean so we have it if we want to do this again. 

We might've candled them a little too much. But it was really cool to see them forming and hearts beating. 

Meet Nugget.  Our one and only chick that ended up hatching and quickly became very spoiled.

I was worried it would keep us from eating chicken but the day after Nugget hatched Norah fixed herself some chicken nuggets for breakfast.  

I dont think this chick was put down very often. She loved to be held and would chirp at us and run back and forth in the brooding box when we would put her down and walk away. She was happiest with someone. We quickly all became very attached to little Nugget. 

She loved to sleep being held. 

Norah had a lot of fun playing with her in the dollhouse.

One night at swim practice we brought Nugget to our friend Whitney (the one we got eggs from) to try to put her under a mother hen who had hatched her own eggs. Nugget was actually from that batch of eggs.  It worked at first but they found Nugget alone and cold the next morning and anytime they put her with the other chicks she would run away. 
 

So we went and picked her up again. The kids were thrilled and hoping she would stay permanently. But we read that chickens are very social and need their own kind to really thrive so I texted Jeff and his neighbor took in Nugget. 

It was a success.  Nugget is thriving with this flock and still loves to be with people and held but Patty has been a good mother hen to Nugget. 

We get weekly videos of Nugget and cant wait to go see her and see if she remembers us.  We missed her more than we thought.  One day maybe we will get chickens