Competing for Mom

These two hens are competing with each other to
see who can hatch two eggs. Normally I won't let
my hens sit on eggs because it cuts down on the
amount that I can sell, but these two have been
adamant about wanting to sit. On Sunday I went
into the coop and found these two both on their own clutches of eggs. I decided to mark one of each with an 'X' and collect the rest. The one in the picture that's sitting in the nest(Daisy) didn't like that much and quickly left. So the other hen that was sitting on her egg rolled Daisy's egg into her own nest and began sitting on it. As soon as one leaves the eggs, the other quickly runs in to take over. I hope after all their hard work that the eggs actually have something growing in them! After 3-5 days or so you can 'candle' the eggs(hold bright back light to the eggs in a dark room so that you can see if anything is developing) which is what I plan to do today or tomorrow. If there is nothing growing, the eggs can become rotten quite quickly and actually burst from built up gasses inside the shell- um gross, not something I would like to clean up! Anyway I will keep you posted on anything developing!