I have mix of hens 5 black & white spotted, 2 Brown, and 1 White

[trina40]

My hens are 1-1/2 yrs old and we just got another rooster since are other one mysteriously died. Are rooster is only 13 weeks old and I noticed he is getting down and dirty with the brown hens, however I have no idea if he even fertile or not and if so how can you tell if an egg is fertilized. And will an egg still hatch if the hen won't turn into a broody, the hen only nests on her eggs at night time however I am finding other hens nesting on the egg please help I am so confused, that I don't even know what hens we have or what rooster we have no clue what to call them, heck I don't even know if I am doing this right LOL!!!!!

 

[Elginchickens]

First of all the hens have to be consistently sitting on the eggs for 21 days only getting up to eat ...drink..and use restroom then they will come right back and sit on eggs....probably what your witnessing is just them laying eggs..when they go to lay egg they sit on top of other eggs already there and mine take about 15 to 20 minutes there to lay...also if it's at night do you have a roosting bar for them to sleep on at night because if you don't then they will sleep on top of or inside the nesting boxes which makes it seem like there sitting in there eggs....but if they get off in the morning and don't get on them until night then there not trying to raise those eggs..

 

[Elginchickens]

My rooster starting mating my hens when he was 4 months old and I put all my eggs in my incubator and there all fertile so it's very possible that he is able to fertilize them

 

[Elginchickens]

My hens are 1-1/2 yrs old and we just got another rooster since are other one mysteriously died. Are rooster is only 13 weeks old and I noticed he is getting down and dirty with the brown hens, however I have no idea if he even fertile or not and if so how can you tell if an egg is fertilized. And will an egg still hatch if the hen won't turn into a broody, the hen only nests on her eggs at night time however I am finding other hens nesting on the egg please help I am so confused, that I don't even know what hens we have or what rooster we have no clue what to call them, heck I don't even know if I am doing this right LOL!!!!!

doyour black and white ones look like this

 

[Elginchickens]

Try to post pictures of your chickens and we can help..... also your best bet is to get a incubator or make one from a Styrofoam ice chest...light bulb wired to a light dimmer and a gauge that measures temp. And humidity. Plus a little bowl of water on inside to create humidity....And you can get the glass out of a picture frame and cut a square out of the top of ice chest lid and tape that glass in there too make a window

 

[Mr Beaks]

My hens are 1-1/2 yrs old and we just got another rooster since are other one mysteriously died. Are rooster is only 13 weeks old and I noticed he is getting down and dirty with the brown hens, however I have no idea if he even fertile or not and if so how can you tell if an egg is fertilized. And will an egg still hatch if the hen won't turn into a broody, the hen only nests on her eggs at night time however I am finding other hens nesting on the egg please help I am so confused, that I don't even know what hens we have or what rooster we have no clue what to call them, heck I don't even know if I am doing this right LOL!!!!!

It was suggested to me to crack one of the eggs open and look at the yolk. All yolks have a white spot on them. If you see a ring around that spot or a "bullseye" the egg is fertile. Hope this helps. Don't worry, I'm sure you're doing just fine.

 

[Elginchickens]

Yah didn't even think to tell you too do that..but yeah that's the way to tell