does anyone farm chickens?
My situation is;
I have 2 broody hens sitting 2 separate nest, side by side without partition. Under these hens I have set several clutches of guinea eggs.
In the beginning I had only one broody hen and I marked with dates several clutches of eggs put them under her at different times with the intent that when she left the nest after the first clutch hatched I will raid the nest and put remaining eggs in an incubator. Sounded like a good plan to me.
A 2nd broody took to setting next to 1st broody in an adjacent nest. "WOW, so cool, now I can hatch more eggs!" I collected more guinea eggs from a neighbors flock to set and found first broody had given second broody about half her eggs. UH OH! this is getting complicated now! Now I have close to 60 guinea eggs under the 2 hens due to hatch all within 9 days of each other.
I know hens will leave the nest within about 36 hours after the hatch begins, my question is, will they leave the nest together if I keep the eggs from hatching under both hens at same time?
I candled eggs and put the most mature eggs under broody number 1 in hopes that broody number 2 will stay with the remaining eggs in the nest. Now they are swapping nest, seems each time they come out to eat they go back to the opposite nest?
July 2 - 12 hatch, the 4th 8 hatch, the 8th 8 hatch, the 10th 21 hatch, the 11th 12 hatch. I hope the 2nd broody will stay with the nest until the 10th.
Any suggestions besides "Don't do that again." ?