New arrivals

Yesterday was indeed eventful and today it continues. Our first chick hatched at 13:30 and was followed by another 5, the last one at 01:40 this morning. Then all went quiet for the night, but there were still five eggs in the incubator and two of them had pipped. This morning it all started again. One of the remaining babies decided that it had kept us waiting enough and decided to make an appearance.  Now we are waiting for two more that have pipped, but think that the last two may not hatch at all :(

The New Arrivals as of last night.

Now, let me tell you about Golliath. He spent more than 13 hours trying very, very hard to escape his oval safe-house. He thrust and he writhed and he churped and he cried. He didn't seem to have it in him. So, although you are not supposed to we decided to help him out. Just a bit, remove some of the membrane and a bit of shell to make the hole a bit bigger. Give him a fighting chance of breaking free. Having done this, we realised that (although in one of the smallest eggs) he was, in fact, the biggest by far and had got himself almost folded in half inside the egg.

Golliath trying to break free from the wrong side of the egg.

We replaced the egg, having made the hole a lot bigger and The Shell Breaker said to leave him be and see if he makes the effort. This we did and fifteen minutes later we had the most beautiful Silver Laced Polish Chick!

Golliath, having broken free and put in with his brothers and sisters.