Woohoo! I'm up to 4 chickies...one hatched this morning! To recap, I had 1 hatch Wednesday (Day 22), 2 Thursday (Day 23), and 1 today (Day 26). NOW...as I mentioned before, the 8 eggs under the two co-brooding mamas weren't the same age/development. I think today's might be an early hatcher from the second grouping. I hope to get a couple more tomorrow/Tuesday. It's funny...Mama the EE hen took the first three chickies, and now today's baby, under her management and is VERY protective (i.e. I'm having to watch myself as she's trying to go all "rooster" on me!), and the BLRW is sitting on the rest of the eggs and hatched today's baby. She also, though, appeared to lay another egg herself, the stinker. There are two in there I can't ID the penciled "X" on. One of these two doesn't belong in the nest. I think I know which, but not sure if I should risk it, so will probably leave it under her until the rest hatch, and then will throw it out.
So, if she's laid another egg, does that mean she's not 100% broody? I'm trying to decide whether to remove her entirely after she hatches whoever else wants to hatch, and just let the EE raise the chicks. (EE is a tried and true mama.) What do you all think?