Important: Candling Question and Nest-Chick-Eggs Question

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

I tried to candle the 11 eggs I had to put in a makeshift nest, and I have a candling question.
8 of the 11 eggs that my broody hen walked away from the nest have dark mass in them and I can see the air sack. I see no movement and/or veining.
2 of the eggs I can see what looks like veins and/or sticks of a soft branch, and I thought I saw movement in them. 1 egg was completely clear but it was only laid on the 31st.
Could it be that I have 2 possible hatches, soon?

Now for the nest problem; I have a feeling my Mom asked my dad to take her out to see the 2 chicks from the nesting hen, while I was at the bank. And they picked up the 2 chicks at the same time and moved from the hen's (standard Cochin) view causing the hen to leave the nest.

Could this be a possible reason the hen left the nest, she stayed on the nest for 5 days after 1st hatch til yesterday, and she's been on the nest with the chicks all night and is still on it?
If I take the eggs I've been trying all night to keep warm back to her will she stay on them as long as the chicks stay close to the nest?
or
I have a 14"w X 32"l hospital cage I kept Cinnabar in while he was healing from WryNeck- I could put her, her nest and chicks in to try and keep her on the eggs.
Would someone Please help me with this?

 

[youngbiddy]

In my experience, you're lucky the hen stayed on the nest for 5 days after the first ones began to hatch. Once the babies start popping out you're on borrowed time.

ETA: The cage is your best bet.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Ok, so you think keeping the eggs as warm as possible over night and seeing some movement a bit ago, I may be able to rescue the 2 eggs and have hatches?

 

[youngbiddy]

If you saw movement and you can get your hen to sit on them, go for it. But don't count on it. Once they decide they're done, that's usually it. If they're really close to hatching (like the last 2 or 3 days) and she won't sit on them anymore, you can try putting them on a tray in the oven with the light on. And a big dish of water on another rack. Just make sure no one turns the oven on.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Wow never thought of that, we only use our oven on occasion, but my dad would end up turning the light out. Anything that would cause the electric bill to go up would get turned off.
Heck he complained when I said I was going to put the heat lamp in my bathroom to try and hatch these eggs on my own.
We have a Sultan hen and roo and would love to try to get some fertile eggs from them, but I have no clue how to make a simple homemade bator to try and hatch their eggs.
Is there a link on BYC for making homemade bators?

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Oh, so far she's staying on the eggs. She even moved them around under her to get them positioned right.
Thank you for your help.

 

[youngbiddy]

Kat's Silly Chickens :

Oh, so far she's staying on the eggs. She even moved them around under her to get them positioned right.
Thank you for your help.

Oh good, thank the hatching gods. LOL
There are a lot of threads about building your own bators; I'm in the process of building one out of cardboard boxes. I'm waiting on a thermostat to arrive in the mail now.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html​

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

When I told my mom and dad I wanted to try to incubate Melody's eggs, dad asked how we could do that without using Bar-b as an incubator. He has a triple cabinet container in the shed. I asked him if it would hold air tight, he said it did but I'd have to get it out and see. If it has an air tight seal to it I'm going to look into converting it into an incubator.

Wish me luck with this adventure...

 

[youngbiddy]

Ooh, fun! Put up a thread with pics if you end up doing it. All us hatchaholics enjoy watching someone else succumb.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Ok will do, as soon as I get the cabinet out of the storage barn.