summing up my recent two months of broody craziness: in a way it was a perfect storm of we-don't know-what-we're-doing, with me being fairly new to chickens and never having hatched anything, and FIVE broody girls, staggered over 4 weeks or so, none of whom had ever been broody or hatched or raised a chick before. in short, chaos.
i think i set a total of about 40 eggs under the various girls, and quite a number never hatched -- not sure what combination of fertility, shipped eggs, or operator error (having too many eggs & unable to keep them all warm, or other chickens wanting to lay their eggs in the same nest, etc) contributed to that -- and a total of nine, i think, have died (weak at hatch & didn't thrive, or injured/killed by other chickens, most likely one of the broodies) -- and one broody hen i had to give away to a neighbor, as for whatever reason(s) everyone else would no longer tolerate her. outcome now is 4 mama hens with a total of 11 chicks -- all of whom seem healthy and vigorous and are happily trotting around outside the run (whenever i'm home to help supervise) learning how to scratch for bugs and etc.
lessons learned: i don't think i'll try to manage more than two or three (at most!) broodies at a time again; i'll stick to giving them 8 eggs or fewer unless they seem a lot more experienced/capable as they get older; i think my attempts to keep two of the broodies with their chicks inside enclosures, ostensibly to protect them from being picked on, backfired, as the chicks were able to wiggle through the mesh of the enclosure & then were in the flock on their own without mama's protection, and got hurt. the ones that i just left alone & didn't try to move or protect, ironically, did the best. (isolating them from the flock completely, i'm sure, works even better, but i didn't have space for that, and then they have to get re-introduced at some point -- at least all the broodies & little ones now are already fully integrated into the flock.)
i also can see the idea of using an incubator to hatch some extra eggs, then popping the hatchlings under the broody along with whatever she hatches herself could be a good idea, if i really wanted to be sure i got lots of chicks.
so, more drama than i'd anticipated, but i'm sure we (the chickens and me) will all be better at it the next time!
and thanks to all on this thread for help/suggestions at various times!
i think i set a total of about 40 eggs under the various girls, and quite a number never hatched -- not sure what combination of fertility, shipped eggs, or operator error (having too many eggs & unable to keep them all warm, or other chickens wanting to lay their eggs in the same nest, etc) contributed to that -- and a total of nine, i think, have died (weak at hatch & didn't thrive, or injured/killed by other chickens, most likely one of the broodies) -- and one broody hen i had to give away to a neighbor, as for whatever reason(s) everyone else would no longer tolerate her. outcome now is 4 mama hens with a total of 11 chicks -- all of whom seem healthy and vigorous and are happily trotting around outside the run (whenever i'm home to help supervise) learning how to scratch for bugs and etc.
lessons learned: i don't think i'll try to manage more than two or three (at most!) broodies at a time again; i'll stick to giving them 8 eggs or fewer unless they seem a lot more experienced/capable as they get older; i think my attempts to keep two of the broodies with their chicks inside enclosures, ostensibly to protect them from being picked on, backfired, as the chicks were able to wiggle through the mesh of the enclosure & then were in the flock on their own without mama's protection, and got hurt. the ones that i just left alone & didn't try to move or protect, ironically, did the best. (isolating them from the flock completely, i'm sure, works even better, but i didn't have space for that, and then they have to get re-introduced at some point -- at least all the broodies & little ones now are already fully integrated into the flock.)
i also can see the idea of using an incubator to hatch some extra eggs, then popping the hatchlings under the broody along with whatever she hatches herself could be a good idea, if i really wanted to be sure i got lots of chicks.
so, more drama than i'd anticipated, but i'm sure we (the chickens and me) will all be better at it the next time!
and thanks to all on this thread for help/suggestions at various times!
I am happy as can be, invaded by chicks everywhere Lol. Have one more broody ... but she has been sooo flaky I doubt any will hatch :/ 
