Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We have had some success with our remaining Orpington eggs: our Pekin bantam pictured in the first photo has managed to hatch three Buff ones from her set of six. Although actually it ended up being five because when we took a look underneath her late last night, one egg had vanished!!! Of the two that didn't hatch, one contained a fully formed chick that had started to 'pip' but then appeared to have been squashed and the second, when candled, showed that the egg had been fertile but had not continued to grow.
Our Red Orpington broody who had been sitting on TWELVE eggs has managed to hatch not a SINGLE one!! This is just ever so slightly disappointing!! Six eggs were lost through being broken (some we think by magpies and/or by the broody herself or even other chickens) and of the six that were left, one was not fertile and the rest had started to grow but then died. We think they died because they picked up bad bacteria from the contents of one or more of the broken eggs - even though we had wiped them clean. The problem with the broken eggs is that by the time they were broken, their contents were probably very 'off' and as such, full of nasty bacteria (and lots of it thanks to the warmth from being sat on by a broody hen...).
So, why had this broody failed so spectacularly? We think possibly because she may have been disturbed too much by other chickens. She is probably quite low down in the pecking order which meant other birds could push her off her nest in order to lay their own eggs. (We did see this happen a few times.) This will have resulted in the eggs possibly not being kept at the right temperature and/or being damaged. Or she may simply have not been a good broody: not turning the eggs enough or leaving them for too long...
Whatever the reasons, it is great we have three healthy happy chicks today, and nine from yesterday, but 12 but from 30 eggs is not a great hatch rate at all!!
And in other bad news one of our 15 turkey chicks has VANISHED - we noticed we were down to 14 mid-afternoon and despite extensive searching right up until after it went dark, not a trace can be found... we assume he/she got separated and then either found somewhere to hide and got stuck or too cold or was taken by a predator: a weasel or stoat maybe? It is very sad and very annoying.
To end with good news though: Orange has hatched FOURTEEN of her 15 eggs: another great looking brood don't you agree??