Again because of the heat, I have not been out gathering or even looking at eggs. I don't have any to give her to start fresh so the best I can do is guess age while candling.Sounds fun! Don't worry, participating is a lot of fun, even if no pictures show up.
If she shows a promise to stay, let her have egg she can completely cover and that are all around the same age (if you can help it). Mark these eggs with a pencil or something so you know which ones are hers. Replace the bedding with fresh so it doesn't smell, some time when she is off feeding.
Best of luck!
For now the plan is to just toss the stinky ones and anything that's remotely questionable, so that they will all fit. Lucky for me she's kind of a big girl and by far my most dominant hen, plus it's stinkin' HOT so even the ones that don't fit well will still be warm. In fact last year my hens decided to hide and hoard eggs behind the hen house. Neither of them was broody not one bit, but every single egg showed signs of development when I found them, three weeks later, and most of them were still alive. God bless the Texas heat.
I can probably do better once she's been on them for another week. Oh well. A large failure rate doesn't bother me. Broody hens make free chicks anyway, so I'm not going to complain. Thank you for the good wishes.
