Double Brooding & some Broody Questions

[Bleenie]

Here's my problem...

for some reason both my girls so far have had eggs under them that were way behind the others in growth. I have had to remove the more advanced eggs and leave the slow eggs under them(to avoid death of embryos). I have added eggs to make their nest a little fuller, to kind of keep them from abandoning it.

I did this with Zima & just had to do it with Kahlua today. About half of Kahlua's eggs were close to pipping and the other half looked about a week into growth. I added some more to give her 20 eggs total. the new eggs came from the incubator and were at about the same stage in growth.

my question is, will it hurt them to brood that much longer?
their weight is still very good and Kahlua's "mask" looks fine, Zima's has gotten pale in the last week though. Should i be keeping food & water in front of Zima? Kahlua's nest is right near the food & water in the run and she gets out frequently so i am not too worried about her. Zima's nest is up in the coop, she is also a little younger than Kahlua. Maybe Zima just wasn't physically ready for brooding just yet?

Kahlua is almost 1.5yrs old.
Zima is about 8 months old.

thanks everyone

 

[Bleenie]

Anyone?

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Sorry Bleenie, I can't help you much here. I think this will be a judgement call on your part w/how you feel your girls are doing broody wise. I do know that Charlotte, being older is looking much more robust brooding than she did last year (her first yr.) Her daughters are beginning to look a bit pale so age may play a part in this. My girls all have food and water within a few ft of them but I think it may also be stress levels for first time moms. I also noticed that my two girls that are sharing a nest box and fussing at eachother

are looking the most pale when they do take breaks. Stress again. When Chloe's clutch hatched there were 5 eggs that didn't pip. Two were close but I noticed 1 egg that was very new so I'm thinking while Chloe was out on break one of the other girls laid her egg in Chloe's clutch. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what has happened w/all your less developed eggs in your broody clutches.