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- #11
Out of 4 eggs, 3 have hatched. One is still in the bator, but I think it died in the shell. The poor thing must not have bounced back from being left unattended in the nest. I put the last little hatched chick under one of my broodies a bit ago. She was thrilled, although the other girls did try to steal it from her. You would think that having exactly one chick for each hen would simplify things, but the white silkies have some serious baby greed
I am not very concerned about these chicks being abandoned early like my broody EE did last summer, these girls are ridiculously devoted.
What I learned and what I would do differently:
Even with 3 broodies, I would not have a staggered hatch again. The process will be to collect all of the eggs first and put them under the girls at once so that they will be at the same pace with each other. Having eggs in different stages created problems with the all of girls moving around continuously and finally bailing on the 3 remaining eggs after the first one hatched.
Keeping better records of dates set, just in case I have to bring them in for whatever reason.
Make sure I have the incubator ready to go in case the eggs are deserted. I did this and was very relieved to be able to quickly transfer the abandoned eggs to an ideal environment.
Clean out the coop early, around 4 days before expected hatch. The girls seem to be most comfortable keeping the babies running around in then henhouse versus in the run. I do have food and water available.
Everything that has been said about silkies being devoted broodies and moms has been true in my case. My silkies are extremely docile and even my rooster and the 1 pullet who did not go broody have been very gentle and nurturing with the babies. I am very impressed at this point.
So, in short, so far I have found that I can let a group of broodies hatch out together, with some adult supervision and with all eggs at the same pace. I do not necessarily need to confine my broody silkies and subsequent chicks from the rest of the silkie flock. They are living together in relative harmony and the chicks seem to be doing quite well. The worse they seem to be suffering from is perhaps a bit of overmothering.
As long as I have eggs for them, I will let them hatch out whenever the mood strikes them. Which I suspect will be often!
What I learned and what I would do differently:
Even with 3 broodies, I would not have a staggered hatch again. The process will be to collect all of the eggs first and put them under the girls at once so that they will be at the same pace with each other. Having eggs in different stages created problems with the all of girls moving around continuously and finally bailing on the 3 remaining eggs after the first one hatched.
Keeping better records of dates set, just in case I have to bring them in for whatever reason.
Make sure I have the incubator ready to go in case the eggs are deserted. I did this and was very relieved to be able to quickly transfer the abandoned eggs to an ideal environment.
Clean out the coop early, around 4 days before expected hatch. The girls seem to be most comfortable keeping the babies running around in then henhouse versus in the run. I do have food and water available.
Everything that has been said about silkies being devoted broodies and moms has been true in my case. My silkies are extremely docile and even my rooster and the 1 pullet who did not go broody have been very gentle and nurturing with the babies. I am very impressed at this point.
So, in short, so far I have found that I can let a group of broodies hatch out together, with some adult supervision and with all eggs at the same pace. I do not necessarily need to confine my broody silkies and subsequent chicks from the rest of the silkie flock. They are living together in relative harmony and the chicks seem to be doing quite well. The worse they seem to be suffering from is perhaps a bit of overmothering.
As long as I have eggs for them, I will let them hatch out whenever the mood strikes them. Which I suspect will be often!
