Help with Hen sitting on Eggs

[Jbenton92]

Hi im new to this site, ive looked around but no where seems to meet my requirement, hopefully a collection of chicken keepers could help me.

Im fairly new to keeping hens, these are my curcuimstances:

i have a large shed that i keep my hens in, i have a lot of hens about 20 hens 3 roosters. two roosters in the same run with the hens which seem to be fine as they have been in there for over 3 months now.

i know that one rooster and 2 hens are silver spangled hamburg, a pair (rooster and hen) are rhode island reds. and im not sure on the others they vary. but the query is regarding my Rhode island hen i have descided to let her sit on one of the eggs i believe to be fetilised, i have been removing the other eggs and placing the fetile one imidiatly back under her if i removed it. its been there for about a week and a half but over the last two days when ive went back to collect the other eggs she has left her egg to sit on the others, she moves around the nest alot to get to the eggs she cant pull under her. i would like to know if that egg will still be viable to be hatched or if it is now useless both times the egg has been cool so im not sure what to do. i just put the egg back under her tonight she was fine still sat on it.

thanks

John

p.s. if this is in the wrong place can a mod/admin move it for me thanks again.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I'd venture that if it's been 'cool' more than once it's probably not viable. you can candle an egg (search the word 'candle' in the search box in the upper right) with a flashlight in a dark place and will be able to tell by now if it's alive, dead, or just infertile. I've never had a hen commit to being 'broody' with just one egg. I think they prefer 6+. What you can do, is give her a bunch of eggs (the same age) (assuming that egg #1 is either dead or infertile) and isolate her from the other hens, so she can't steal their eggs, and they can't borrow her nest. I've got my broody in a big metal dog crate in the coop, so she can see and hear the other ladies, but no eggs can get in or out... good luck!

 

[LarryPQ]

The egg is PROBABLY toast.

Go out with a flashlight tonight and candle it. If you don't see spidery veins and movement, it is probably dead. You can leave said egg, and check again in a five or six days to see if there is progression. If not: toss it.

 

[Jbenton92]

yer i expected comments like this, thanks for clearing that up, i know about candling i just wanted to leave it abit so it would defiently have something in if it was fetile.

Thanks for the advice and helping clear up my confusion

John