In late March of this year, I bought an incubator because it was an amazing deal. Of course, being as impatient as I am, I started it up soon. I gathered together 7 eggs from my hens and rooster who really does his job.

After a few days, I was discouraged because a couple eggs had stopped developing for an unknown reason. 2 more stopped developing a few days later. Around day 18, another 2 stopped. I had only 1 egg left, and it would rock and pip. This last egg was my only chance of hatching my very first home-hatched chick.



It took a couple days longer, but the chick hatched on April 14, 2015. I was so happy! This little chick was very noisy, but his cuteness was overpowering. I remembered thinking, "He's my only hope now," so I named him Obi-Wan-Kenobi.




To keep him company, I put in a small stuffed animal (pictured above) hoping he would enjoy it. To my surprise, he went right up to it and snuggled with it! He was very happy with his new friend.

I began to notice something was odd with his right leg. It would stick out a bit. I read up, and did treatments for splay leg. Nothing was working. Somehow this little chick was able to get around just fine. As he grew, the leg problem became more evident that it was in fact not splay leg, but a joint that fused wrong during development.

He had a special place in my heart, so I would take him outside to enjoy a different setting.



He grew more and I began to wonder how I can help him with his leg as he gets older. I thought, "I'll take it step by step and care for him whatever it takes."

Much to my disappointment, I couldn't do everything for him. I had read up about other chickens with joints fused wrong, and they were lucky to live a month. I had this wonderful boy for 3 1/2 months. He loved to have company and enjoy the sun on our outside ventures. His leg problems eventually caught up with him.

I'll never forget my wonderful little Obi. He's always going to be in my heart.