Staggered Hatch

[FathertoFeathers]

I have a turkey hen sitting on a clutch of eggs rn. I thought both of my hens were broody but it turns out one of them had still been laying and my other hen would just put the new eggs under her. I didn’t know until a few days ago when I candled them and noticed the differences in development. I have at least two who’ve poked into the air sac rn and the others look like they may be a few days behind. Thankfully all the other eggs seem to be pretty similar in development. There’s just a few that are hatching before the rest. Should I remove the poults when they hatch and put them in my brooder? Or should I leave them be?

 

[sourland]

I'd either remove the poults or move the unhatched eggs to an incubator to keep the hen from leaving the nest.

 

[HomesteadDeb]

I'm having the same problem. When last I checked there were two chicks in eggs at about the same place of development... the hen has now hatched them, and crushed them trying to sit the rest of the eggs,so planning to take the rest away from her and put in an incubator, but how do I know what settings to use if the other eggs aren't as far along? I can candle them when I remove them but I hadnt for the last week because I knew the two were close to hatch and was afraid to disturb them moving the others around. Also my hens feathers rubbing on the eggs keeps rubbing off my pencil marks so I know the dates I candled and where the air sac is. So unless I can see definitive movement when candling I'm pretty much clueless how far along they are.