My Introduction! and a question??

Hello everyone!!

I am fairly new to the chicken and duck thing. I love my chickens! I have had Momma, Jellybean, Alex (Aracauna rooster) and Fluffy (his hen), For a year now.. I also have 7 juevenile production red hens, Momma and Jellybean. I also have 5 Buff Orpington hens, 6 Black stars, 5 Delawares, 3 Silver Wyndotes (who are just starting to layeggs), 1 Barred Rock named Barbara, and two golden sex links (the rooster is named Peaches, he was supposed to be a girl and the hen is Butterscotch), I also have 7 juvenile Aracauna hens, 2 muscovy ducks (not sure of their sex yet, a mallard named David (he lost his mate and my 2 Rowens to a dog, grr), I lost 4 Aracaunas last summer to the heat, they went into the dog/duck house and wouldn't come out because our hen Momma was in the duck enclosure, I guess, and I have a pair of Indian Runners, (Speckles, the female, is currently sitting on 13 eggs due to hatch any day! She started with 20 but after candling several of them I found two dead almost ready to hatch (sad), and 3 nasty smelly ones! I candled a few more and they are pipped and one, I thought was dead, was alive, but the membrane is almost all white. I put tape over the small hole and put it back in the nest.

Question; Should I take her remaining eggs and put them in the incubator to hatch? I'm sure there must be a humidity or heat issue. It gets cold at night (38-48 F) and the days are pretty cool also (50-68 degrees F). She lays on them most of the time, but she got off the nest for 2 hours today, so I'm getting concerned about them being able to hatch. Any thoughts?? Thanks in advance!

 

Thanks! I got the incubator ready last night, so I think I will transfer 7 of them and leave the rest with momma, unless she doesn't stay on the nest today. I have camera out on the nest so I can see what's going on. I thought that, if she hatches a few of them maybe she will accept the other chicks that hatch in the incubator?? Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens..

 

Thanks! I was up for quite some time last night, reading up on what I should do. I am already learning so much from everyone else's posts. It's great!

 

I was looking online and they said to do that, but I am going to transfer eggs into the incubator today. I already removed the ones that candled and were rotten. They didn't break in the nest or anything. I guess this will be a learning experience. I will be more ready for the next batch. Thanks!