Okay, here's my hatch-a-long question...
On March 20 one of my EEs decided to start sitting on some eggs. She started out on 4, one of hers and three belonging to my other girls. I figured the other girls would just lay in a different box, but NO, they all went and laid in the box that Crispy was already occupying. So on March 21, Crispy was now sitting on 8. The next day the same thing, only now her sister MG decided to get all broody on me and sit on the same nest Crispy was on and no matter how many times I took her off the nest, she would go right back. I candled on day 7 and saw a lot of really good veining on most and a few that looked like nice big blobs with movement going on. I tried to move MG to her own nest, placing one of the eggs that they were on in another box but later that night, MG was back in the box with Crispy and the egg I had put with her was left behind and was cold :-( I put the abandoned egg back under the two girls and just decided to leave them be. I candled again at day 14 and found half of the 13 eggs were very well developed and moving around a lot. The rest were in stages from a little veining to not a lot going on at all. I left all of them, even the clearish eggs, not knowing exactly when they were laid.
Well, yesterday I took a peak under the girls and found that two of the eggs were broken. It's just not a good idea with two hens in a nest box with that many eggs and my other hens are just determined to keep laying in that nest. It's bound to be a disasterous situation. So, I decided to try moving MG again. This time I put the six eggs that she sorta had in a separate pile in the adjacent nesting box and stuck her on top of them. Fortunately, she is satisfied and is staying put.
My concern is this.... all of the eggs are sticky with the embryo, yolk, whatever from the broken eggs. They have feathers stuck all over them and bits of bedding. Each time I've candled them I've been careful to wash my hands first to prevent oils and bacteria from getting on them and now they are a total mess. Don't the eggs need to "breathe"? Should I go in and wipe them of with a damp cloth? Also, the eggs are all at various stages of development. About half were laid two weeks ago and should be ready to hatch around he 10th, but what about the eggs that were laid within the past week or even the one that was laid just yesterday? Once a few babies hatch out will they just abandon the rest?
Thanks for any advice or input.