Baby Marans (chickens) ...

The first two Marans chicks - cute!

Chicks are hatching, on their due date, even!  These are Marans chickens; they are black and white (my camera is not working properly, they really are black and white), soft and fluffy, and really, really cute!  These were the first two, so far six have hatched and three more have pipped.  Out of fourteen eggs, that's not too bad.  (The best average I have had yet, anyway!)

One has been pipped since early afternoon and doesn't seem to have made any progress at all.  I am steeling my resolve to NOT help him; I tried that with an earlier batch, and the four that I "helped" were weak and mostly died a slow, lingering death.  (Much as I hated watching them waste away, I couldn't bring myself to help them in that area.)  I have learned that opening the incubator frequently is a BAD thing, so I am limiting myself to once a day, to remove the chicks that hatched the previous day, and that is ALL.  If this chick has not made any progress by morning, I will attempt to help him then.  Hopefully by morning there will be six chicks hopping around in the incubator!  :)

On another note, I designed a quilt today to use a pictorial fabric I purchased four or five years ago.  The colors are absolutely beautiful, rich blues and greens and purples; the pattern is of birds, parrots, I think.  I am attracted to pictorial fabrics, but am not very good at using them.  I am getting better, however; I think I have a good design for this one.  When I get it together, I will post a pic.