THE CHICKS ARE HATCHED!!!!

On Tuesday night around 10:30PM, one of our little chicks hatched - Mr. Maybe. Surprisingly, it only took two hours from start to finish. Around 3AM, Chicken Little made his appearance. Around 6:30AM, Freckles came out of his shell. Gigantor had a hole in his shell, but he wasn't coming out. On Thursday we woke up and the other chicks had pecked at Gigantor's shell, and he had dried out inside of it. We took him upstairs, into a steamy warm bathroom, and gave him a little help. So, for two hours we added moisture to the dry parts. While we working on Gigantor, we had the shower running. My mom said "Time to turn the shower off," and when I looked over, it was

FLOODING!!!
After we turned the shower off and began mopping up with towels, my mom had Emmalena run downstairs to see if the water was coming through the ceiling. As Emmalena ran out of the room my mom said "Don't let Dad know!"

As Emmalena was looking at the puddle on the ground, Dad walked in and said "What is that?"
Emmalena replied "Ummm, the dog peed?" As she was saying this a drip from the ceiling fell on her had and she said "From the ceiling?"
Dad wanted to know what was going on....

Meanwhile back in the bathroom, Gigantor made his way out of his shell, we thought. It had been a really rough hatching for him and we didn't think he was going to make it.

We put him back in the incubator to rest and dry, and hoped for the best. We left for a few hours to go paddle boarding. When we came back we found out Gigantor was stuck to the bottom half of his shell. Back to the steamy bathroom we went, but this time we didn't flood it. We helped loosen up the shell, and once it was off we put him back in the incubator. He immediately started flopping around and we began to think he might make it after all.

The next morning, Gigantor's back and head didn't look dry. We realized his feathers were crusty. This happens sometimes when chicks get "shrink wrapped" in the egg. We rinsed him off with some warm water and brushed him with a soft tooth brush. By that night, he was fluffy and cute and ready to go in the brooder with the rest of the chicks.

PS - Gigantor is a Buff Orpington and the other chicks are Barnevelders.