Ok, so I have (had) a buff Brahma go broody, and she started out with 4 eggs. Well, by the middle of it, she had 17 eggs! I knew I should have marked those first four, but I just never got around to it.
So, she gets off the nest around Day 18 and I candle all the eggs. All are good except 5 of them, but they seem to be in 4 different stages. Three had actually pipped internally, and three were within days of pipping. then the others were probably from day 8-10. Anyway, she hatches the first 3 and stays on the nest. A couple days later, 3 more hatch. She got off the nest and I figured she was finished and 6 babies were more than enough for her to handle.
I grabbed the remaining 6 eggs and put them in the bator. Now we have one egg that has internally pipped, 3 more that look ready to go..........which would be fine. It's the last 2 that are maybe Day 12 that will be hatching while we're in the middle of vacation. So, I'm thinking, gosh I wonder if our neice (who will be house/chicken/dog/kitten/horse sitting) can handle the whole bator to hatcher process and take care of the new babies. I'm having serious doubts, but there's no helping it. Then, my amazingly understanding
hubby
says "Why don't we just take them with us?" He explains that he has this inverter and he can fix it up so we can plug in the bator. Can you even imagine?!
Going down the road on an 8 hour drive to the beach and then hatching chicks while there???
I still have no idea what I'm going to do!!!!!!!!!!!!