New Year, New Life

I put a dozen eggs in to incubate on the night of the 12th of December.  Candling at 5 days showed that two were most likely not fertilized.  Then another peek at 19 days showed that we had another that was a quitter, it stopped developing at about 8 days.  They sat at about 103*f for 21 days, then at about 10am this morning (1st Jan) I noticed the first peep.

It stayed like this for a looooong time....at about 3 pm it started to make that little cracked area drop a few bits of shell and we could see a little beak poke out from time to time..

The cracks started to spread right around the egg and at 5.30pm it finally pushed the top off the egg and propelled itself out of the shell.

Three hours later it looks like this.....

There is nothing quite as cute as a freshly hatched chick!!!

It really brings back the wonderful miracle of life incubating eggs.

In my pic without the flash below you can see the other peeped eggs.  We should have another couple by midnight, all things going to plan..

The wee darling seems to know my voice.  When I rolled the eggs, three times a day, I would always talk to them.  Now this little cutie is chirping to all the other chicks.