Originally posted by Skunktaur:

I put an egg next to my stone hearth, but then it vanished when I returned. My guess is that it hatched and immediately jumped into the fire and died. So I wasted literally so much gold that I could build a giant pile of coins and then some, on a single chicken egg programmed to kill itself unless prepared in exactly the right way.

The chicks do be braindead. Keep the fire elevated or isolated and its fine