Help ! I can't remember it's been a long time but need help

[MamaBear2016]

Hi All,
years ago i had 50 chickens ,the thing is now i have 6 chickens

3 are Rhode Islands hens and one rooster my other 3 are Easters 1 rooster 2 hens.
My got them for me after 2 weeks of my surgery they where babies at the time
now my hens are laying i have 1 hen , stays on the the eggs for hours for a month
off and on keeping the eggs warm,
But today i went to check on her and eggs and the rest of my chickens and
i do have a heat lamp in the home made pen for my chicks in the garage ,
to keep my chicks extra warm .now the my garage is about 44 to 46 degrees
now today the eggs where cold and the heat lamp is about 3 and half to maybe 4 feet off of
the eggs . i hope i did this right i let my hen have 2 eggs and i had brought the other 27
inside,i had put the eggs in a cardboard box with some pine shavings ,i have a desk lamp on
the eggs the lamp is about 2 feet away and i have temperature gage from outside to keep track
on the heat .
So what is best have the light on them or have my stand up space heater have about 2 feet from it?

Please let me know

 

[gtaus]

I'm confused. Are you trying to get a broody hen to hatch these eggs, or are you trying to incubate the eggs? If the eggs are in a garage with 45F temps, I cannot imagine a heat lamp 4 feet above the eggs is nearly enough to keep them warm.

 

[MamaBear2016]

my hen Blondie she was sitting on the eggs and all six of my chickens
would lay on the eggs and i had gone in there and it was warm
in their pen ,but yesterday the eggs where cold so i brought the eggs
inside and put them in a cardboard box i did have my light on them but now i have
a heater next to the box but not to close i was thinking of putting them in a cage with
Blondie that way she can sit on them and have food and water for her .
but too bring in the heat lamp .
i have 3 nesting boxes with pine shaving thick of the shaving all nests and their pin gets clean every 3 to 4 days but they get fresh water every day and feed .
and trying to show who's boss i have 2 roosters with the hens
its been 29 yrs since i had chickens

 

[gtaus]

I think I sent you a link on incubating eggs in a different thread. I have successfully raised days old chicks bought from a hatchery, but have never tried to hatch out chicks naturally. My future goal(s) is to try to hatch out chicks naturally and/or incubate fertile eggs. I hope that link I sent you helps, but sounds like to me that your hen is maybe not broody and you don't have an incubator set up for use. From what I understand, a broody hen only leaves the nest for short periods of time to eat, drink, and poo and then returns to the nest to keep the eggs warm. You should not need a heat lamp, from what I understand. But, like I said, I have never hatched chicks naturally. Let us know how things develop.

 

[Pyxis]

So one of your hens was broody? As in, she was staying on the eggs all day and all night and only getting off them for about a half hour each day to eat, drink, and poop?

If that wasn't the case, then the eggs weren't being incubated by the hen because she wasn't actually broody. That means they probably didn't develop. You'll need to candle them to see if they are even alive or developing.

To me it sounds like she wasn't broody at all and the eggs were never actually incubated, since you said she was sitting on them for hours, but only 'on and off'. If she were properly broody and really setting, the eggs would have hatched 21 days after she started sitting on them. If it's been a month, the eggs aren't going to hatch.

If you'd like to hatch your eggs, I'd recommend buying an incubator to use and then collecting up to ten days' worth of fresh eggs from your hens, and then putting those in the incubator.

 

[MamaBear2016]

I think I sent you a link on incubating eggs in a different thread. I have successfully raised days old chicks bought from a hatchery, but have never tried to hatch out chicks naturally. My future goal(s) is to try to hatch out chicks naturally and/or incubate fertile eggs. I hope that link I sent you helps, but sounds like to me that your hen is maybe not broody and you don't have an incubator set up for use. From what I understand, a broody hen only leaves the nest for short periods of time to eat, drink, and poo and then returns to the nest to keep the eggs warm. You should not need a heat lamp, from what I understand. But, like I said, I have never hatched chicks naturally. Let us know how things develop.

 

[MamaBear2016]

i will thank you for that link it shown me the same incubator i want to get i have to order
one so it can be sent to my sons work ,his work don't have them right now .
Blondie was brooding and would get mad but i just don't know
why she stopped and let them get cold, right now the eggs are getting warm , but yes i will let ya know thank you

 

[littledog]

If Blondie was truly broody, the hens wouldn't take turns sitting on the eggs, Blondie would be staying on the eggs almost constantly and keeping the other hens away. It sounds more like all the hens enjoy relaxing in that nest, whether or not eggs happen to be there. It's also possible she was trying to hatch the eggs at first, but gave up because the other hens were bugging her.
Next time Blondie (or another hen) seems like she is setting, take her and 6 -10 eggs (not just two, even if you know only two are fertile - it seems like a bigger clutch promotes a greater sense of responsibility in the hen - I have no evidence to back this up, just how my own broody hens have behaved.) Put her and her eggs in and individual enclosure with a nice nest and her own individual food and water. You won't need a heat lamp for letting a broody hen hatch chicks, the mama hen will keep her eggs at the right temperature, unless you get some sudden turn of below-zero weather - hens usually don't go broody when it's freezing.

If you intend to take your hens' fertile eggs and hatch them yourself, you really need an incubator, because the humidity, and turning them at the right time, is just as important as the temperature. I don't know much about incubating eggs, I've only ever raised chicks from broody hens, so I'm sure many others have excellent advice about hatching eggs by hand.

I wish you much luck though! Raising a new generation of chicks from your own chicken parents is really rewarding, no matter how you do it!