I put fertile eggs under a clucky bantam but they don't all fit. Advice?

[issyh]

I picked up a dozen fertile eggs to out under a clucky bantam but they don't all fit. I don't have an incubator and I don't really want to buy one. Should I put the remaining eggs under a heat lamp?

I'm very new to chickens and have never hatched eggs before. Happy for any advice or pointers to useful threads.

 

[southernbellaaa]

I've never personally hatched eggs just under a heat lamp, I'm sure it could be done but I would imagine a very poor hatch rate because the tempature/humidity would be extremely hard to control. You can find a very simple video on youtube to make your own incubator from a Styrofoam cooler (very inexpensive) give that a shot or you could gamble it with the heat lamp method. Good luck!

 

[conquest780]

Having the same problem. My bantam is having difficulty on sitting on 7 eggs. The eggs just sneak out from underneath her. Try making a manual incubator. It would be a nice experiment.

 

[bluegrasslady]

People have done it with a heat lamp. I would get a thermometer to set with them to ensure proper temp and maybe place a damp paper towel over them for humidity?

 

[LTygress]

This thought came out of the blue for me, but it might be worth a look.

Years ago, there was a story about canadian geese who were hatched and raised by a human. But with oncoming winter, said human also had to teach them to fly south for the winter.

It was made into a movie, and I just remembered a scene from that movie that may help. The little girl hatched the eggs... in a dresser drawer with a plain light bulb. IF you can find a "normal" light bulb, you might be able to try that. The dresser would technically be your incubator and the lamp would be your heat source. An actual heat lamp would be WAY too hot to put in a dresser though! But a normal light bulb would probably be close enough to the eggs to keep them warm. You might even try a heating pad if you could get the right temp - but not directly UNDER the eggs. Try putting it flat across the top of them so it warms the air all around them, or to the side if it gets too warm, and use the dresser "incubator" to get it to just warm up the air.

Another option would be a large cooler. One of those big large plastic "Coleman" coolers from wal-mart, for example. You would have to put a lamp in there, and the cord would keep the lid propped open just enough up for air circulation. You might also want to unplug the drain hole to help regulate temp, humidity, or air circulation as well.