How long do Silkie Bantam eggs need to hatch?

I have read posts that say you need to take a broody hen and get her UNbroody. Do a search. The thing I have read the most is to put her in a wire cage.

Thank you all for advice and help.

Now we have a strange but OK dynamic. 12year old son takes her up to a box in his room to sleep at night, and he spent some time protecting her outside from the other chickens. Eventually they accepted her being outside with them.

Now she cackles to get his help if another chicken starts to threaten, but its not that "OMG!" cackle. Its more of "I can call my boy on you, you just back off" strutting kind of cackle. We're like "the strange herd" from IceAge movies, only we're a new kind of flock.

Now she's moulting. Still haven't found a vet but she seems ok, as long as her boy is around. He gave her a nice bath and blowdry yesterday, she really likes that. All fluffed up. Maybe be like new by the end of summer.

I was reading posts looking for 1 or 2 silkie eggs for my silkie to hatch. I see now your post is pretty old, but if you are still in the "chicken business" I am still looking for a way to make my little Gertie happy. She has had a rough life, right now she either hangs out with me outside or is alone in her segregated pen because everyone else beats her up...she is a bit of a spaz when she is nervous...

Anyway, I am hoping she can put her broodiness to good use and not be such a lonely girl.

Thanks, and by the way I am close to Lake Forest.

Donna

I have had a silkie hen successfully hatch a healthy chick at 30 days incubation - her hatch started at 26 days and she hatched a single chick every day through the day 30. 21 days is usual for most chickens, but sometimes silkies can take longer. If there is competition for food or harassment by an aggressive rooster and the hen has to spend extra time off the nest, the eggs may cool, and the embryo can go dormant for a while, and when the hen sits again the embryo resumes growth. If the egg is too cold or too hot for too long, the embryo will perish. Silkies are very persistent sitters and they will go broody and sit indefinitely even on no eggs at all. Some hens are good at rolling dud eggs out of the nest and others will continue sitting determinedly on a hopeless cause. Removal of the egg after 30 days for those hens that do continue to sit on a hopeless cause is recommended since the eggs can fill with gas and explode in the nest which is quite a smelly mess. When candling results are inconclusive it is better to leave the egg under the hen than crack it open prematurely - an egg that is about to hatch can be fairly dark with a dark chick or light with a light chick and for a novice it can be hard to tell if there's a live chick in there or not. For hens that sit forever without any egg, it can help to find them "foster" eggs to hatch, so they won't have to be broody as long and somebody gets some birds from the deal.

I know what you mean! Afer 20 days of incubating, my hen hatched 2 chicks from a nest of 9 random eggs. I was taking out the egg shells and other eggs, when one exploded in the nest. I had to get it out quick, but the hen and chicks weren't covered in yucky yolk, so I left them where they were. Now they're all grown up!

I believe that yes, your hen might still be broody. You could try to tie a loose loop around one foot, and tie her to a run if that suits you, though you should probably keep her near other chickens. On the other hand, if you were to put a golf ball or fake egg in her nest, she would at least feel like she is brooding a real egg. I know you said you don't want any other chickens, but a valid egg is also another great option. It might even get your hen to socialize a little!
Hope I helped--Meghan

ArmstrongRanch said:

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I have had a silkie hen successfully hatch a healthy chick at 30 days incubation - her hatch started at 26 days and she hatched a single chick every day through the day 30. 21 days is usual for most chickens, but sometimes silkies can take longer. If there is competition for food or harassment by an aggressive rooster and the hen has to spend extra time off the nest, the eggs may cool, and the embryo can go dormant for a while, and when the hen sits again the embryo resumes growth. If the egg is too cold or too hot for too long, the embryo will perish. Silkies are very persistent sitters and they will go broody and sit indefinitely even on no eggs at all. Some hens are good at rolling dud eggs out of the nest and others will continue sitting determinedly on a hopeless cause. Removal of the egg after 30 days for those hens that do continue to sit on a hopeless cause is recommended since the eggs can fill with gas and explode in the nest which is quite a smelly mess. When candling results are inconclusive it is better to leave the egg under the hen than crack it open prematurely - an egg that is about to hatch can be fairly dark with a dark chick or light with a light chick and for a novice it can be hard to tell if there's a live chick in there or not. For hens that sit forever without any egg, it can help to find them "foster" eggs to hatch, so they won't have to be broody as long and somebody gets some birds from the deal.
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Our broody silkie has been on a nest of mixed fertilr eggs for 33 days now. Just found a stinky explosion. Kids mixed up since eggs at one point and we ended up cracking embryos into omlett. Sad! Locked coop, eggs piled and hen got confused, found her on wrong nest at one point, may have been over night. Sounds like you have expertise, what do you think we should do?!

no, definitely let her sit/set. i took an egg that is exactly as you described, it had what looked like an air pocket at one end. silkies are tiny ittle things. i opened the egg and it was alive so im now a murderer and it pains me to think i could be mother nature. my hen has been setting almost two months. one and a half exactly. there are four baby chicks hatched under her and another half dozen eggs that all look as if they are full of dark with a bit of empty space which now i know is a viable chick. i am scared to death for the babys now because what do they eat? what do they drink? how long will this hen stay on those other eggs? and i know about being pecked upon by other chickens even though they too were nest mates less than a year ago. so i took baby chick scratch, mixed with water and put into nest box. ill swap it out again in an hour or so as i put in a little bit of chick starter first early this morning and later the one with water but i don't want to get it wet in there. they are so cozy tucked under mother hen's wings and while I can bring them in and give them water and food, i can't give them warm mother wing you know? i need some answers from someone who knows. i've had chickens my whole adult life and never had baby silky chicks. i always bought baby chicks day old and cared for them myself. i had a baby chick that was hatched late in the season, discarded by mom and froze. my son put him on the deck and on his way to work noticed twitching so he put the baby in his shirt and brought him to me. i cared for him all day and that night we tried to put him back under mom but she would have nothing to do with it. i kept it (half meat bird half americana) in a shoe box feeding every 20 minutes for months, then a boot box then a rubbermaid tub then a bigger rubbermaid tub then into the living room (he began to stink) then he woud go outside during the sunny days then a chicken hawk came and he and 20 other sparrows hid under a waterfall and didn't come out for an hour while I cried my heart out but an hour later a last ditch effort when I could breathe again went out to call for him and here he came along with 20 little sparrows from under the waterfall and he ran to me. he got big and mean then sweet and followed me around with the doberman pincer dog. what a menagerie I had/have. but being old i can only do what i think mother nature would do and prefer any more to let nature take it's course but i cannot let these baby silkie chicks starve or die because the hen began brooding and won't get up. i dond't know what to do i need some advice and need it three days ago or more. please please please anyone???