When I was 12 all I really wanted was a horse. I had never even thought about having chickens, ducks, or anything like that. Then I got a phone call that changed my life lol. My gram called me up asking if I wanted two lil chicken eggs that were hatching right then. I didnt really know what to do or say but I decided to head to her house and see these two lil eggs. I got there to find a card board box with a towel in it where the two lil eggs sat hatching and peeping under a desk lamp. According to my gram she had collected a dozen of eggs from my uncles chicken house and put them in the refrigerator. Then while she was making lunch she realized that peeping was coming from the frig, when she looked she found two eggs were hatching in the carton. I later learned that she had accidentally taken the eggs from a nest that was occupied by a broody hen; the hen was off the nest doing what broody hens do when they take a break, when my gram walked up and took two eggs out of the nest to finish off the dozen. So I asked my dad and he said I could take them home but that I shouldnt expect them to make it as lil chicks are very fragile when hatching. So I brought the two eggs home and we put them in a cooler with paper towels in it and a desk lamp over it. Dad told me to leave them be and not touch them, so we left them alone in my room. When I came up for bed I found one wet lil yellow chick resting and a lil black chick almost out of its shell. I wanted to help it so badly but my dad would not let me so I just watched as the lil thing struggled free and rested along side his yellow friend, it was the 4th of July. I raised them like they were my children and they thought I was their mother hen. They would fallow me, roost on my shoulders, eat from my plate, and they even went camping with me a few times. The yellow chick grew up to be a beautiful lil white hen and the black chick a gorgeous barred roo, both where bantam size and mutts through and through, but I loved them to death. I named the roo Rocky and the hen Henny Poo. They grew up and unfortunately when I was 13 my Henny Poo was taken from me by a coon, who was just as quickly killed by my dad (I really hate coons), and Rocky died just last year in his sleep. But they were my first chickens, it is all b/c of them that I have my flock today not to mention many other animals.
