The "Preppies"

Rusty came to us along with Wingtip, Sista Sola and Irving on July Fourth last summer.

Their Mom, Goldie had 25! eggs under her thanks to the other opportunistic hens in the yard. After number 8 hatched she cackled "Enough!" and proceeded to peck the newest little black chick and throw it out of the mailbox, then jumped ship with the lucky first borns. It's true they nested in the mailbox!

John, the man I am pair bonded to, brought the little abandoned peeper in "just to show me" and of course, we had to save it, being the compassionate saps we are. We got a little box, and I naively suggested, "well, just bring all the eggs in, they probably won't even hatch".

I was astonished that eggs start peeping before they actually break through! We ended up hatching out 5 eggs of the 17 orphaned egglings in our bedroom before they dried up. John actually performed a little chicken caesarian section and peeled a couple of them right out of their shells. We did lose most (thank god) they just went inert. Two were murdered, another story, the remaining three became our beloved little chicken kids.
We came to refer to them as "the adorables", we doted & spoiled them to the point that they refused to associate with the rest of the flock. We fed them a special high protein diet of fresh cockroaches, and delicacies from the table. We jokingly called them "Private School Kids", "Preppies". Elitist chicks with a sense of entitlement who insisted on living under the house right below the bedroom where they were born, well, hatched. They just wouldn't move out!