Accidentally have eggs hatch at different times under a broody. (long)

Cats Critters

Completely Indecisive
13 Years
Oct 15, 2007
5,672
148
386
Clarion County, PA
My Coop
My Coop
Here is what happened had 12 eggs marked under one of my CM broodys (I have 5 CM and ether all are/have been broody this spring/summer or 4 of them have!Plus a BA)We went on vacation leaving all the chickens under the care of the neighbor. came back to extra eggs under the broody, I had told him to remove unmarked eggs and that no brown eggs should be under her. I gathered all the brown eggs from under her put them in the refrigerator to feed to the cats (what I do If they might have been under a broody for a couple days, turns out the one I cracked was about day 9
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so they got thrown deep in the woods) . And went and candled the rest because most of pencil marking them had worn off and all where developing! gave 2 that where the latest to start to another broody.
Had 10 hatched on time one hatched a couple days later and died because I helped it and It had not absorbed every thing
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. So the last 4 went to another broody, one was suppose to hatch with the 1st 10 but have not figured out which .
The broody with 10 chicks was off and caring for them when the BA setting on the eggs said " I'm going to take care of chicks instead of eggs!" and nothing I did changed her mind so she and Broody CM #1 are caring for the chicks. All 5 eggs went to CM #2.
Fast forward to the 6th we have another baby! Now I'm starting to worry because that left 4 eggs and my just started ofter broody CM #3 (their numbered by currently broody) is very mean (she has a very bad name) and is so early in being broody she attacks the new chick when ever she sees it so I'm wary about giving her eggs and I don't want to raise babies myself if I can help it and especially a single chick.
Fast forward to last night another pip!this morning anther chick! So there is two chicks and 3 eggs left in the nest. One of the eggs was suppose to hatch with the 1st 11 (ten chicks, plus one who died) and 2 eggs that from the early candling are about a week behind these 2.

So what do I do give the rest of the eggs to the evil hen (always has been evil plus being broody
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)and have #2 raise them , raise them myself, try to add them to the week-olds, which I don't think will work. So what should I do?
 
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Good heavens!

What a mess...well, I had something similar, but not so complicated.

I only had one broody and had to incubate last 2 days in my bra, with one of those 2 needing special care for a couple of days. I slipped them in under momma at night after she'd been asleep for a couple hours.

I'd let mean broody hatch them, and watch her carefully- mine pecked pretty meanly at them after they hatched, but I figured out she was telling them to get back under her until everyone was done hatching. She lay off after they learned to hide under her until she told them it was Peeps Parade time. Once she let them out, THEY weren't the target- everyone else had to get out of Dodge with wide berth!!!

I think it's too long a stretch to add them to the week-olds. The one that needed medical care for a few days was a full week behind the older ones, and while she was 2 days old when I slipped her in, she wasn't up to speed and got left behind a lot in the yard- very dangerous!
 
Update
The evil broody made me feel better about giving her the eggs when I toke my little sister out to see the new chick, pulled the newest baby out from under #2 and reached under to get the other chick could not find it, picked #2 up not there start to freaking out tell my sister to take the chick out so I can listen for chirping and followed the chirping to broody #3, and under her there was the baby safe and sound! she some how pull this chick from the other nest to hers.
So #2 and her 2 chicks are now free-ranging with the other 2 broodys with the almost 2wk old chicks with no problems and the 3 eggs are under #3. Unfortunately one is most likely a dud because it should have hatched with the first 11 and I candled last night and one looks like it has stopped growing
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so it looks like only one chick form these 3 eggs.
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here is #13:
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and #14:
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and there is one more egg left so I'll give it a day or two more and then candle it and if its looks alive but not ready to hatch it will go to my incubator, alive and ready to hatch another day under mom and me bring her and #14 food and water, and if died get rid of it.
 
Bad news #14 and the last egg are now my roommates
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I learned that B*tch (evil hen) is a bad mom, had her and #14 out to get a drink and any time it moves away she tries to rip out feather or its legs out! so no babies for her, also from the look of #14 eye/eyelid she grabbed/picked it (the eye looks okay but she keeps the eyelid mostly closed like it hurts
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)
so she is inside safe and sound and currently trying to help me type this
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How aggravating, that the neighbor didn't do as you asked. If he wasn't going to do the job, and just said so, you might have had somebody else do it!

I always mark my eggs with sharpie, it doesn't rub off, it doesn't penetrate the shell, my eggs hatch really well, with healthy chicks. And I can see it easily. I just can't see the pencil very well, and under a hen it gets rubbed off anyway.

I had broodies all over this year, and chicks played (still playing) Musical Moms. They move from hen to hen, and none of the hens really seem to care much, they probably have no idea who hatched who. All the hens are being followed around by mixed-age groups of babies, with a turkey poult and a guinea keet as well. I see the poult and the keet with a different mom every day.

2 hens turned out to be psycho moms. They got separated out and put in open with some new roos, to get over being broody, (so they would leave the other hens and chicks alone) and await their fate. We were going to send them to freezer camp with some excess roos, but a neighbor down the road who'd lost his roo, and only had 1 hen left, said he'd like them, so we gave them, and one of the excess roos, to him. He was thrilled, and said how beautiful they all are. Who knows, without so many other hens and roos to stress them out, they may hatch and raise chicks just fine, next year. Maybe the psycho thing was a reaction to so much commotion around them.
 
Just wait until they watch over everything you do like an editor!!

I had a Polish who'd sit on my laptop screen looking upside down at all I typed!!
 
How aggravating, that the neighbor didn't do as you asked. If he wasn't going to do the job, and just said so, you might have had somebody else do it!

Not tos worried about it because they are really good about taking care of the critters, and he built my chicken coop, gave me a feeder, gave me an incubator , and He mows are lawn (we kill mowers) all for free.
Just wait until they watch over everything you do like an editor!!

I had a Polish who'd sit on my laptop screen looking upside down at all I typed!!

hopefully she will be a she and be able to stay because I am already attached to her, and I manged to put here back in her brooder and she is currently sleeping curled up against the egg
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