Chicks developed but didn't hatch, how to remedy?

[Sunny Side Up]

I've been setting eggs from my standard sized hens under the broody bantams in order to get some new mixed-breed laying pullets and eating roos. But the ones I want the most to hatch haven't! I have a nice Red Sex-Link who lays big brown eggs. In Jan I got 2 of her chicks, hatched in the incubator of our poultry club. The pullet is a nice layer now, looking like her mom, and the roo was a big genial guy.

But so far, all 3 broody hens left these eggs unhatched. And when I checked them, there were fully developed chicks inside.

What should I do next time I get a broody hen? Collect just this hen's eggs to put under her? I'm thinking they need more time for incubation, and the broodies have been getting off them too early, after the other chicks have hatched.

Please tell me what you think.

 

[CindyS]

Make sure the hen starts out with all fresh eggs. If she has a few she has been setting on for a few days and you give her more, the eggs she has will hatch and she will leave the others because they are due later. If this happens again, take her early hatchers away and put them in a brooder so she will continue to set. When they all finish hatching then you can give them back to her. Another option, If you have more than 1 broody, give the hatched chicks to 1 and the unhatched eggs to another to finish.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I do put all the eggs under the hen at one time. I've been using a 3-step process to set eggs with a broody hen:
1) Make sure the hen will set on fake eggs in a nest box in the coop for 24 hours
2) The next night move the entire nest box with the hen on her fake eggs to her private location away from the coop, make sure she's comitted to setting there for 24 hours
3) The night after that I swap the fake eggs for the ones I want her to set

But that's a good idea, to put the hatched chicks in a brooder and have the hen continue to sit on these big eggs I want to have hatch. The last hen who set was so tiny that I only put 3 eggs under her. Only one chick hatched out, even though the hen stayed on the nest for a couple days after the first one hatched. They did leave the nest for short breaks, but went right back. Perhaps that was long enough for the eggs to get chilled. The big egg she was incubating had a nice big chick in it, probably a roo, it had really thick shanks.

I have one hen setting eggs now, I'll try that idea if all her eggs don't hatch at one time. Thank you for the tip!