sad news... I checked on Wendy whose eggs are due tomorrow. a chick had already hatched, it was laid in the broody's nest so possibly had a head start. the others are not pipped yet. well, she crushed it. the chick hatched out completely, but she laid on it too hard and killed the chick. it was almost flattened into the nest. I pulled the other eggs and gave her fake ceramic eggs, the real ones are now in the hatcher.
what do I do??? how can I trust her now?? is it because she has not been sitting long enough, she doesn't know to keep her weight off them? I watched my other 2 broodies Beetlejuice and Bertha carefully hover over the chicks, lifting their bodies off them. is she just too heavy/fat? maybe if she sat the full 21 days she would be thinner. today is her day 8 or 9 I think. she was contributing to Bertha's nest for 10 days prior to sitting down solid.
I guess I am going to hatch these chicks inside. let them get a little stronger and then give them to her? how can I know that she won't kill them again?
bleh
Edit: she is really PANCAKED into the nest hard. and there is a lot of nesting material in her box, a few inches thick and rounded out. maybe if I removed all the nesting material she couldn't crush them. I dunno
what do I do??? how can I trust her now?? is it because she has not been sitting long enough, she doesn't know to keep her weight off them? I watched my other 2 broodies Beetlejuice and Bertha carefully hover over the chicks, lifting their bodies off them. is she just too heavy/fat? maybe if she sat the full 21 days she would be thinner. today is her day 8 or 9 I think. she was contributing to Bertha's nest for 10 days prior to sitting down solid.
I guess I am going to hatch these chicks inside. let them get a little stronger and then give them to her? how can I know that she won't kill them again?
Edit: she is really PANCAKED into the nest hard. and there is a lot of nesting material in her box, a few inches thick and rounded out. maybe if I removed all the nesting material she couldn't crush them. I dunno
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everyone over here is good and guess what three weeks ago yesterday Sunshine my rhode rock hen went broody and she hatched out six cream crested legbar chicks which are auto-sexing and we have 3 hens, 2 cockerels and 1 mystery yellow fluff ball I am going to keep the two cockerels as they are going to be my new layers and breeders next year but also my uncle had put the same cream crested legbar eggs in his incubator and some other breed eggs just a day after sunshine had her eggs so last night we gave her six chicks from the incubator 4 hens, 1 black mottled Peking chick and another yellow mystery fluff ball and then what ever else hatches today we are also going to give her sunshine is such a good mummy and has taken to them straight away mhhmmm it's going to be a strange sight to see a hen with 15 odd chicks Lol I will make sure to post lots of pics also Millie's two chicks are grown up now the one with the black bobble on its head turned out to be a cockerel and the more goldfish one a hen I have now sold the cockerel to a lovely lady. But as for Muffin she turned out to be not such a good mum she hatched two chicks out and one just suddenly went missing with no traces and then the remaining chick she did have was very small and never thrived and at night the little thing would go and sleep under Maddy with her three babies but a couple of days ago the little one just went missing again with no traces and I was very unhappy I do not think I am going to let Muffin hatch any more chicks out as I don't want this to happen again 
but on the other hand Maddy successfully hatched out all three of the eggs I gave her and she is a brilliant mum I will try and post pics of everyone. 
