Baby chicks!!

Well, from our first try at incubation, we were able to successfully hatch 2 baby chicks!!  We had 3 more that pipped but never fully made it out of shells.  My book said not to help the chicks out of shell b/c this is part of natural selection, and it can make your stock weaker.  Ok, I can understand the logic here, but I will tell you, with this next batch of eggs, if any need help- they will be getting help from us!!  Very hard to watch the little guys make it all the way to the finish line and then not make it fully out.  As it turns out, those were the very large eggs, and the chicks were too big inside to be able to fully turn themselves around in the shell.  Yes, if we were going on to use these as a breeding stock, I could understand not wanting carry on a line that produces eggs too big to hatch on their own.  However, our main purpose with this first batch was to see if we could actually hatch eggs.  And, also to have meat birds for the freezer in a few months.  But, since just two hatched this time- these two will be pets- as our boys have already named them.!!  They said with the next batch of eggs that hatch that they will name them, too.  However, they said that the names would be "lunch" and "dinner"- got to love kid's logic!!  On the day the first two pipped was day 21 right on schedule- however, they took about 12 hours to fully emerge from the shell which of course occurred at 1am and 3am.  I swear it was like waiting for a baby to be born- I could not sleep at all, and I had to watch the whole process.  It was really amazing!!  I tried to wake the rest of the house up to see the chicks coming out of the shell, but all of my boys are hard sleepers including Dad, so it was only me up with them hatching.  When the boys woke-up at 6am that morning, I was back in the bed finally, but I was quickly awakened by their screams of "oh my gosh, there are live baby chicks in the incubator!"  It sounded like Christmas morning around here!  The two chicks are doing very well- very well loved and cared for.  We have them in a brooder next to the incubator right now.  But, during the warm days, they like to stay in the greenhouse.  It is so cute watching them chase after bugs being so little.  They already try and take mini-dust baths- it is very amusing to watch.  Yes, that is my entertainment- some might say, geez don't you have something better to do- my response is "I am doing something better right now".   The simple things in life really do offer the most pleasure.  You just have to slow down and enjoy them!!