We had heard the eggs NEED TO BE at 98 degs and higher for the safety of the fertile eggs. (there are a "few" that are fertile)
If the hen is broody, then she should be on the nest for at least 22 hours every day. That would keep the eggs warm enough. Being cold for a few hours, especially in the weather you describe, should not affect hatch rates.
If the hen is not covering the eggs for the majority of every day, then the hen is not broody. You might hatch unbrooded eggs using a heat lamp; less likely things have happened.
we heard that if they get colder thann(something like) 85degs the chicks in the eggs will not survive.
Enh. Mileage May Vary and all that jazz. I had a hen get onto the wrong nest for an entire day once, and she had one dud out of twelve or so when they hatched.
So, you all are informing me the heat lamp is not necessary?
Yep.
A couple of the girls are brooding. Not consistantly but I have seen the behavior as mentioned often.
Hens have three stages: Not broody. Thinking about broody. Broody.
Most modern chickens from a hatchery are going to stay in stage one. They'll peck your hand when you reach under them for an egg, and maybe puff up feathers and
Squark at you, (or, in the case of Leghorns, flee screaming) but in about an hour they'll get off the nest and be done with the whole thing. They've laid the egg, had the rest/relaxation/thinking time in the nice, dark nest box, yelled for the rooster to come get them, and left. They'll never think about that egg again. I have one older hen, six years old, who will draw blood if I reach under her for an egg. Never gone broody in her life. Sits in the nest box for a minimum of two hours every day.
Stage two is nearly the same as stage one. She'll lay an egg almost every day, and her voice will deepen. Her feathers will puff a bit, and her comb will get nice and red. She'll lay her eggs in a nice, hidden place (my better broodies do this. The hatchery girls tend to think the nest boxes with the other eggs are a good place) and they'll otherwise act as though everything is normal.
Stage three begins when the hen sets on that nest, puffs herself out to cover the eggs, and stays there. Her voice gets much deeper, and her comb starts to droop and get paler. She completely stops laying eggs. Her breast feathers fall out due to the constant warmth and pressure (some people have seen their hens plucking their feathers to line their nests, but I've only ever seen that behaviour in Muscovy ducks and rabbits. I know my hens do not pluck their breast feathers.) She starts to lose weight and leaves the nest once a day in order to eat and dust bathe. She stays on that nest at night, and she does not poop in the nest. Her poops, in fact, are all stored up and when she gets off the nest, she deposits them in one huge, stinky explosion that can leave a single poop twice the size of her eggs. Her feathers puff out and she talks to herself a lot more than a normal hen would.
If a hen is not exhibiting constant, consistent broody behaviour, she is in one of the first two stages. Based on what you've said here, I don't think your hens are broody. What behaviours have you seen that makes you think they are broody?
Shoul I not worry and let nature do it's "thing"???
Yep. Or get an incubator. Best of both worlds, I'm told.
Short answer to your questions:
I don't think your hens are broody. If they are, they're more than capable of hatching eggs for themselves. If they're not broody, then the heat lamp almost certainly isn't a controlled enough condition to hatch eggs.
It's highly likely that you do have embryos in the eggs under the heat lamp; they're likely to die if you don't get them into something a little more well-regulated soon. I would candle your eggs and see what you've got in them before doing anything definite, though.
