what would you do-most of clutch gone

[tryingtohaveitall]

So we have a broody SS and I got some fertile eggs from a friend to put under her on May 1st. Last week one of the 6 broke leaving 5. NBD, this is really more of a fun experiment since she's broody anyway.

Today I went out to check on them (I worked all weekend and the kids have been taking care of the coop) and there were only 2 eggs under her. I do some investigating, apparently a day or two ago, the 4 yo gathered 3 of the eggs from under her, since the crayon marks had rubbed off and she didn't realize they were the fertile eggs.

I'm so mad and sad. Yes, it was an accident but I had already had problems last week where a kid visiting the neighbors had gathered up the eggs away from her and I told that she had to sit on those eggs, not to take them away and that the neighbor kids weren't allowed in the coop.

What would you do? Get more fertile eggs? Just be content with the 2 and hope I get 2 chicks out of them? I guess the good side is that when we broke open the cold eggs, the chicks were all developing appropriately. The other good side is that I didn't give someone from work eggs with chicks developing in them, which was my initial horror.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Id also be worried about where those eggs are? If the 4yo collected them....who is going to crack open a half formed chick into the frying pan?

I would leave the 2. She will be very happy with them!

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

I guess I wasn't clear enough, we were able to candle and find the 3 fertile eggs that she had collected. That's why we opened them up, to be positive that they weren't still in the egg carton in ours or someone else's fridge.

I may just leave the 2. It's just so disappointing.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Gotcha!

It is disappointing. I had 7 eggs under my broody and the only 2 to NOT hatch were the ones that I most wanted.