The Chronicles of Wicket: A breeding thread and chat

This thread was inspired by the thread "The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread" by @speckledhen
This is also a repost as no one saw my other one besides speckledhen and I need some insight

Rex, full name : Tyrannosaurus Rex; Breed: Golden Laced Wyandotte. Rex is Wickett's father. As a youngster, Rex was very shy and avoided all contact with me and as he aged, his hormones turned him to the darkside and his since been banished to the dog house. Hawkeye is Wickett's mother and is also a Golden Laced Wyandotte, but between you and me, she is an awful representation of her breed besides her body shape. Hawkeye is a small hen, smaller that I believe she should be, and she lays even smaller eggs. When Rex still lived among the ladies, I would, of course, hatch eggs because who can't say no to babies? At least I can't. When I first hatched from Hawkeye, it was an experiment and at first I wasn't even going to do it. I had already set up my incubator, Nurture Right 360, in the garage and there were three brown eggs in there. The next day, I checked the nesting box and found an exceptionally small egg, laid by none other that Hawkeye. So, I day behind the rest, I set this egg into the incubator and three long but short days later, I candled the eggs and found life in all except one. And its not the one you're probably thinking of. Some egg I don't even remember who laid was tossed out. After "patiently" waiting 18 more days and candling a whole lot, oops, two babies hatched. And one day later there it was. The tiniest chick I have ever seen. Half the size of the other two even after they had dried. It's name was Jellybean. After a couple of days, I had to give up these three babies which was hard for me to do. I gave them to a friend who own even more chickens than I do. She swore she would send me pictures and that she did. She was very fond of Jellybean and it was fun to see how close these two were and I envied it. I enjoyed seeing the three chicks grow up until I got some heartbreaking news. Jellybean had passed away. It was hard to hear but my friend had told me thatJellybean had not been growing hardly at all. Only the wing feathers seemed to be normal. Skipping ahead to last March, I was looking through BYC and came across the Easter Hatch-A-Long and I couldn't resist. Chicks on Easter? How could I resist? So I went and whipped out my incubator and set it with a lot of eggs (Rex was still with the ladies but very close to the dog house). I had gotten some more pullets the previous year and I was super excited to see these mixes. Here it comes, I put only one of my older hens eggs in there. If you guessed it was Hawkeye's, you'd be correct. The rest of the eggs were the pullets first eggs and I thought I had seen some of the previous eggs from them had been fertilized, right? Wrong. Not a single one hatched except Hawkeye's egg. My lesson was learned. So, early Easter morning, I checked on the egg, and BOOM! There it was. An external pip. For the rest of the day, I watched and I waited. The egg was always moving and this little guy was eager to get out of there. I was just sitting and watching and when I got bored I got up and walked around my room a little bit. That's when I heard a crack. I rushed to see what happened and I found another pip. I sat and watched again and boom, another pip shortly after. That's when I knew what was about to happen. I called for my mom and my little sister and they rushed in and watched with me. Slowly but surely, the little chick was turning and cracking, unzipping the shell. Pushing hard against the membrane which seemed like it wanted to keep him trapped there forever. It all happened so fast. The membrane broke and with a final push, he rolled right out and lay there exhausted. Little Wickett. ( i recorded the whole thing - check out my instagram @eye.of.the.crow) After resting up he tried walking and eventually his toes uncurled. He was completely unsteady and walked like a drunkard. For the rest of the day, I would watch him and sometimes take him out and hold him to my mouth and breathe warm air on him. He was so eager to get back to his cozy little incubator and knew exactly to go back in there. I would watch him from my spot on the bed and see him stand up then lie down, stand up then lie down, again and again. Still so unsteady. Eventually he made his way over to the side of the incubator where he could get a perfect view of the outside world that awaited him. He would stand there in such a regal and proud pose and I knew from then that he was a gentleman, for now at least. He was already watching over his future ladies. I could hardly sleep that night, listening to him bang around all night. We went out and bought him some buddies from a store but they were huge compared to him but they got along great in a brooder. I had a photoshoot with them for a contest here on BYC. I didn't win but they loved my pictures and that's all that matters. I watched Wickett grow up but it started getting concerning. Like Jellybean, Wickett wasn't growing as fast as he should have been. I didn't want to lose Wickett and I had to know what was wrong. Come to find out he had what you would call Failure to Thrive and this broke my heart. I started spoiling him with extra treats to try to up his calorie intake but he was still growing slow. At 4 weeks old, he was hardly bigger than a day old chick. I kept on feeding him plain greek yogurt and scrambled eggs as much as I could. Week after week, I waited for the worst, but it never came. Wickett has such a strong will to live. 18 weeks later, he is no bigger than a 14 week old which is a good improvement but he has the feathers he is supposed to and is maturing nicely. His attitude is so good too. I had let all the chickens out to wander the yard and I found him chilling in a sunny patch of grass. I thought that was a splendid idea so I walked over, and at that he got up and started walking away. I still went over and laid down, he was watching me the whole time, and after a few seconds he waltzed over and laid down right up against me. He didn't leave when I reached out to pet him, we stayed like that for about 10 or 15 minutes. I don't know why he takes to me so much. Maybe because I was the first thing he saw when he broke out of the shell? Maybe because he knew I was safe because I would always keep him warm when he was cold? Heck, maybe it's just because I messed with him so much he just got used to it. It doesn't really matter. I can't wait to see the rooster he becomes, all I hope is that he doesn't lose himself to the darkside like his father. I will try to attach as many pictures as I can and I will try to update as much as I can. Thank you for reading thus far if you've made it.
 
Rex, the dad, showing off his stuff.
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Hawkeye, the mom, foraging.
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Newborn Wickett standing at attention.
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Easter Wickett!!!
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Wickett now, at exactly 18 weeks.
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