@16paws yeah, long time no talk! Been busy with the farm. Sadly we lost 3 chicks this morning. 2 died in my basement in my hands... I was cryin. Cute fussy butts... and another from both broodies. ...
Oh no! How sad! I'm sorry for your loss.
Thank you FarmerViola, for the advice. As I called my boys in for supper, I popped back into the coop and barricaded one mom into the nesting tote (she had gotten back in on her own) and kept the other mom and 3 chicks out. It worked! Peeking out from under mama's wing is a tiny ball of tired fluff! The first chick hatched 8 days ago. We started with 27 eggs and are down to 10 now with 4 live chicks. Yay!
Nevermind. I'm so depressed. I took the boys out this morning to check on the chick. They were excited to see if it finished hatching since it hadn't before they went to bed. Midnight stood up and we found not one, but two chicks. Both dead. I think there was bacteria from one of the bad eggs (that I got rid of before they broke) or from a previous dead chick. I think the bacteria killed these two. They had dried off, but from my quick glance it appears at least one had maggots crawling around in a not-sucked-up yolk. Gross and sad. I need to go back out without a baby in one arm and figure things out.
I don't know if I should swap out the nesting tote with a clean one and transfer the last eggs and the hen or if I should just toss everything. What do you think?
We were excited to watch the mamas take care of their chicks. We've learned quite a bit this round and will do things differently next time. (Like separating co-broody hens, dividing the clutch of eggs, candling the eggs half-way through and discarding any bad eggs.)