Broody French artist 'hatches' chicken eggs live in Paris museum

A French artist, whose previous exploits include living inside a stuffed bear and navigating a river in a giant corked bottle, has hatched his first chick after spending three weeks  sitting on 10 eggs in a Paris museum.

Abraham Poincheval, whose father made headlines for inventing pills that make flatulence smell of roses, has been on public display inside  a glass case in the Palais de Tokyo modern art museum since March 29. 

He could be seen checking on the eggs every few minutes by visitors or via the museum's live YouTube feed.

His patience finally paid off this week when the first of the eggs began to hatch, forcing Mr Poincheval to temporarily rise from his nest for fear of crushing the little yellow chick that emerged.

The 44-year-old artist's ordeal is far from over, however, as he must stay in the glass case until the other nine eggs deliver their chicks before he can return home to his two human children.

"It's 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 news agency.

One of the hardest aspects of his time brooding the eggs has been the heat inside the glass vitrine, as the eggs have to be kept at a minimum of 37 degrees Celsius.

He sat almost round the clock -- he was only allowed a half-hour break every 24 hours -- in one corner of the vitrine in a heavy traditional Korean cape on a specially designed "laying table."

Mr Poincheval has vowed that his chicks will never end up on a dinner plate and said he planned to give them a happy life in his father's farm in the west of France.

In February this year the artist entombed himself for a week inside a 12-tonne limestone boulder, and previously had spent time inside the stuffed body of a bear.

He once spent a week on top of a 20 metre pole, navigated a river in a corked bottle and has crossed France on foot in a straight line. 

His father Christian Poincheval made the headlines in 2014 when he developed a range of pills aimed at making people’s flatulence smell sweeter - of chocolate or of roses.

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