Breaking news: Finally 'human hen' artist hatches his first chick

Abraham Poincheval, a French artist, hatched his first chick today after sitting on 10 eggs for three weeks.
The artist made headlines last month after spending a week entombed inside an egg-shaped rock.

Poincheval has hardly slept since he stepped inside a glass vitrine in a Paris modern art museum to sit on the eggs on March 29.

However, late on Tuesday afternoon the first of the eggs started to hatch, compelling the artist to for the time being to rise from his nest for fear of crushing the new-born.

Before then he was only permitted a half-hour break every 24 hours to keep him from cracking -- although he never once left the glass case in the Palais de Tokyo.

"It has been really tough for him. He has slept sitting on the eggs. It's been a lot harder than being shut inside the rock," a spokeswoman for the museum told AFP.

Poincheval, which is 44-year-old, has had to put up with the heat, having to keep the eggs at a minimum of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

More so, he has also been all but cut off from the outside world. "His voice is quite muffled through the glass," the spokeswoman added. "It is quite frustrating to communicate sometimes."

Right from the beginning, Poincheval -- dubbed France's most extreme artist -- appeared far more daunted by the performance than his claustrophobia-defying spell inside the rock.

The nine siblings must also hatch before Poincheval can go home to meet his two human children.

"The chicks will stay with Abraham inside the vitrine for 72 hours," the museum's spokeswoman said.

"He will not feed them for the first 24 hours until their bowels clear and he has enough feed for them inside the vitrine for their first 48 hours of life," she added.

Only then will he have the right to quit the run with his "offspring", which he has already vowed will never end up in a casserole.

His father Christian said as a child Poincheval had a pet chicken.

He also added that the "hen-men and hen-women" his son brings into the world will be allowed to live out their natural lives on his smallholding in the west of France.

"I have prepared everything to welcome the chicks including a luxury chicken coop. I can assure you that they will never be the centrepiece of a grand feast," said Christian Poincheval.