By Joan Gorman
01st April 2021
How to make your nest:
WHAT YOU NEED: Five or more extra large chicken eggs or duck eggs (we used 8); push pin; acrylic paint, white and other colours to make a pastel shade; paint brush; pencil with a new eraser; PVA glue; five or more yellow pom-poms about 3cm diameter; very small googly eyes; orange felt; scissors; brown string; branches; white or other natural coloured feathers
POKE HOLES IN AN EGG repeatedly until you can break small pieces away with your fingers to create a hole about the size of a twenty pence coin.
REMOVE THE EGG FROM THE SHELL saving the egg in a bowl. Repeat this process with all of the eggs and make holes in different positions instead of all at the top for instance, this will make the eggs look more interesting when they are in the nest.
TAKE THE POM-POMS AND GLUE TWO EYES onto each of them. Cut small diamond shapes out of the orange felt for beaks. To attach the beaks, put glue in the centre of a diamond and poke the centre of the diamond into the pom-pom. Leave the chicks to dry.
GENTLY WASH THE EGGS WITH WARM WATER and dishwashing liquid and leave them to dry. Mix your acrylic paints until you have a nice pastel colour. Paint the eggs and leave to dry. We made our paint colour by mixing white, a bit of blue and a tiny bit of yellow. The eggs could be left unpainted, or painted in a variety of colours and patterns. The nest could be simplified by just using a pile of straw, raffia, or shredded paper.
STUFF THE CHICKS INTO THE HOLES OF THE EGGS so it looks like their heads are poking out and they’re having a look around. If the hole in the egg is too small, gently break a bit more egg away to make a bigger hole. If the hole is too big, stuff an undecorated pom-pom underneath the chick’s head for support so the head doesn’t fall inside.
WHEN THE EGGS ARE DRY, use the eraser on a pencil as a stamp to make some of the eggs spotty.
MAKE A NEST BY FORMING A CIRCLE OF BRANCHES and tying it together with a bit of brown string. Then build up the nest around the branches with more branches and line it with some feathers. Lay the eggs in the nest so you can see as many chicks “hatching” as possible.
