Today is Day 20 for my Easter Egger hen, whose been sitting on 8 fertile crossbred eggs. I know I shouldn't have, but I did candle (gently) last night, straight out of the nest. Most look on track for hatching on time, but a couple looked more like Day 14 or so. It took me a couple of days in the beginning to think to mark each one with a pencil "x" on the end, so I suppose it's possible these not-ready-looking eggs could have been laid by other hens after she started sitting. There's also a very persistant BLRW who co-sits with her. I have been pulling 1 new egg out of the nest every day (maybe hers?), toss miss BLRW outside to free range, and she eventually comes in and sits back on the nest. To her credit, Mama the EE is pretty small, so maybe BLRW is helping cover the 8 eggs.
My question is, if Mama hatches out the ones that looked ready but there are still other fertile, developing eggs in the nest, should I:
a) Move the whole nest in to my quarantine, with any hatchlings, in hopes that Mama will hatch out the rest in a few more days
b) Move Mama and the hatchlings, and leave BLRW on the nest with the rest of the marked eggs
c) Move Mama and the hatchlings, and pitch the unhatched but still developing) eggs?
(I probably should have moved Mama and the nest earlier, but our temperatures have been fluctuating a lot here and she'll be outside in a partially covered quarantine kennel, so I decided to wait until hatch day - once the major hatch is over.)
Thanks!
