Hatching an egg in a coop?

[Stedman]

i have 5 hens could I be able to order a fertilized egg and put it in the coop and have one of the hens stay with it and raise it?

 

[lazy gardener]

No. First you need a broody hen. Next, you need enough room in your coop/run for a hen to safely raise chicks. Finally, hatching eggs are super expensive and not very successful under the best of circumstances. If you bought a dozen hatching eggs, you might possibly see 30 - 40% of them hatch, or maybe even none of them would hatch. And chances are that you would have at least 60% of the chicks be cockerels. You would be better off getting day old chicks, or getting local fertile eggs if and when you do get a broody hen.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

X2
You can't make a hen sit. The hormones have to be present that tell her she wants to raise a family. And you don't use a single egg. You use a clutch which is several eggs.
A single egg may not hatch and a single chick isn't as good as multiple chicks for several reasons.
My hatches vary dramatically from 30% pullets to 80% pullets. Mostly my hatches are about 2 more pullets than cockerels but maybe I've been lucky. I only remember 2 hatches that were majority cocks.

 

[lazy gardener]

What CC said about a single egg or single chick!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add, a fertile egg won't become a chick unless it is held at 99.5F for 21 days. So a hen would need to sit on the egg around the clock except for a brief foray to defecate, stretch, eat and drink. Depending on ambient temperature, that could be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more and not necessarily every day.