Very excellent shots of the plant in this blog! I asked my wife about the chives because I remember her complaining about them when she was trying to grow them a few years back and she was saying that they could take as long as 2 months to germinate. She also said to pick the flower buds off the plants and pickle them to make a nice vinegarette for salads (or just eating the pickled flower, they are tasty!) This will also help prevent the chives from spreading as I guess they can easily get away on you if they start to spread.

Apologies if you already know this ^_