Hi, I am very new to the chicken world, and I have lots of questions. What I want to know now concerns broody hens and hatch success. my chickens are 9 months old today, and a couple months ago one of my cochins went broody. I put her in a crate with 9 eggs and let her do her thing. I did not candle becuse I didn't have a good setup, and 6 eggs were rotten, several burst. 2 babies died in (my fault...long story)the shell and 1 lived. I guess my question is why were so many rotten? Were they not fertilized? I had 2 roosters in with 22 hens, and every egg we ate was fertile. what can I do in the future(besides candling) to improve my hatch rates?