It's the question we hear most — and honestly, it's our favorite one, because it means you care about the ending as much as the beginning.
Sometimes a teacher asks it during booking. Sometimes a parent asks it at pickup time. And sometimes a seven-year-old asks it, very seriously, while holding a chick named Pickles. However it reaches us, the answer matters: when you bring living creatures into a classroom, you deserve to know exactly where they go when the program ends.
Here it is, plainly: on Day 28, we come back, and the chicks come home with us to our farm. Every time. That's not a detail of the Hatch a Lovely Chick™ program — it's a promise built into how the program was designed.
First, the goodbye week — because goodbyes shouldn't be rushed
Most hatching programs end at hatch day: the chicks appear, everyone celebrates, and the equipment (and chicks) disappear almost immediately. We think that ending is too abrupt for children who have spent three weeks watching, waiting, and whispering to a shell.
So our program runs a full seven days longer. During the brooder week (Days 21–28), the chicks stay in your classroom in their brooder — eating, drinking, cheeping, growing visibly day by day, and developing the little personalities your students will name and argue over. Children feed them, watch them, draw them, and learn the gentle responsibility of caring for something small and alive. And when pickup day comes, it isn't a surprise. It's a planned, honest goodbye — one of the most valuable lessons in the whole experience.
What pickup day actually looks like
On Day 28, we return to your classroom. We collect the chicks, the incubator, the brooder, and all the supplies, and we handle the cleanup of the setup. Your classroom goes back to normal the moment we leave — no equipment to store, no supplies to return by mail, nothing left behind for you to figure out. Teachers: this part is entirely ours. That's the deal.
Where the chicks go next
Home. The chicks travel back with us to The Lovely Hen farm in Southampton, New Jersey — the same farm their eggs came from. These are our birds, hatched from our NPIP Certified flock, and they return to a working family farm run by people with 10 years of chicken-keeping experience. Back at the farm they keep doing what chicks do: growing — fast — under proper heat, with proper feed, space to stretch into, and a flock around them.
And then? They come home — and they stay home. The chicks your students hatched grow up right here at The Lovely Hen, free-ranging on grass under open sun and skies, living out their best chicken lives. And one day, the hens among them will lay eggs of their own — eggs that may travel to another classroom, for another group of children, in another Hatch a Lovely Chick™ program. The circle continues. Want to keep watching your chicks grow? We post flock updates on our Instagram and Facebook pages — the chickens, the eggs, and everyday life around the farm.
Why we don't leave chicks behind
Occasionally someone asks whether the class can just… keep them. We understand the impulse! But a classroom isn't a long-term home, and chicks don't stay chick-sized — within weeks they need space, a coop, protection from predators, and a plan for their whole lives, including the possibility of roosters. Handing that responsibility to a teacher or a family that didn't sign up for it wouldn't be fair to them or the chicks. A hatching program should create wonder, not an obligation. So the chicks' future is our job, and we've already planned for it before the first egg is ever delivered.
If your family falls in love anyway
It happens all the time — a class hatches chicks, and suddenly a family is pricing coops. If that's you, talk to us. We raise chickens, sell hatching eggs and coops, and teach a Chicken Keeping Masterclass, and we'd much rather help you start properly — the right setup, the right timing, healthy birds — than watch an impulse decision go sideways. Some of our favorite backyard flocks started as a classroom hatch and a parent saying, "Okay… tell me how we'd actually do this."
Still wondering about something? Our FAQ answers the questions teachers, directors, and parents ask us most — safety, cleanup, what happens if eggs don't hatch, all of it. And if your question isn't there, message us on Instagram or Facebook Messenger. We reply personally — usually with more enthusiasm than you expected, and possibly a chick photo.