It's been a busy week! The eggs we put in the incubator a couple of weeks began to hatch Tuesday night, four days before their due date, which is today.
So far, we've hatched out eight chicks successfully, are looking at five eggs not doing anything, lost 2 chicks to bleeding, have one - Twoonie, the second "born" -- that may not survive because of wonky legs (if it can't feed itself, it won't survive).
Here are some shots of Dwayne, our resident chicken obstetrician, assisting with a birth:

Our birthing room gets kind of messy:

Our nursery is filling up! Sometime today, these little chicks will be let loose in the big pen.

We didn't have much luck hatching chicks out of green-shelled eggs (in order to fulfill my need to have hens that lay green eggs); the disabled chick and a chick that died last night came out of green shells. But these guys are cute and noisy and active and it's going to be fun to watch them get bigger, just like the older chicks in the pen next door:

We started with five -- one died, and three of these are roosters!!
Aren't chickens fun?