My silkie bantam hasn't laid in over a week!

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Does she sit in the coup all day and
Only come out once a day for food and water?
Also when you put your hand near her does she peck at you?
I also wanted to say she looks beautiful!
Goodluck,
Fionn.
 
Last edited:
She is so beautiful
2764.png
She doesn't really come out for food or water on her own unless I nudge her out of the box. She doesn't go to peck me at all when I put my hand near her. She quite happily lets me pick her up
 
So how long can they be broody for before you get worried? Is it normal for such a young chicken to be broody?
 
Silkies are great broodys.
She isn't a realy young chicken considering chickens,
Usually live 5-6 years.
It takes 21 days for chicks to hatch.
If you would like chicks let her stay sitting on the eggs.
I would give her in a bit of food and water into her coup,
So she doesn't have to go too far for it.
Goodluck,
Fionn.
 
Silkies seem to be hatched already broody. I have left them be and many stay broody for about 2 months. Sometimes they get overwhelmed by external parasites during it. You can break her, or leave her. If left, check her over occasionally to see that she isn't getting too thin. Check her vent for lice and around her head for mites. I used to just dust them every few weeks with a pyrethrin based poultry dust.

Silkies are best when they are put to work hatching and raising chicks. I currently have bantam but no silkies due to how constantly broody they are. You will just have to figure out how you will deal with it as it will happen many times a year.

You can break them by putting them in a wire bottomed crate slightly elevated off the floor. I have also broke them by relocating them temporarily or blocking the nest, but silkies are determined sitters. Most break in 3-5 days, but a week or more wouldn't be unheard of with silkies.
 
This forum is fantastic thanks so much.

Can they be broody without being on an egg though? She's not sitting on an egg. Just in the nest box as the last egg she laid over a week ago I collected?
 
Most broody hens will sit on nothing or anything. It's a hormonal state fueled by them maintaining a higher body temperature, hence the reason they puff themselves up. That's the reason for the wire bottom crate for breaking. Cool the chicken which breaks the state.
 

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