setting silkies

[minister man]

I am pretty excited. The Silkies I bought last summer are now laying pretty well. So I am thinking that they might be thinking about setting soon, or later who knows. I just want to be ready when they do. I found a web site that discribes letting broodies do the work, that discribes a 24 X 30" broody coop for the nest and the food and water for the hen. What I need to build or come up with is the nest. So what would you use? that article suggests cardboard boxes, but how large would they need to be? Does it need to have sides and a top or just a base? If just a base how high? I was wondering about buying some plastic containers at the dollar store, because I could wash them out between hatches and keep them clean, but they would only be a base. I can get plastic pails about 16" inches accross, what if I cut them off so that they wer only a few inches deep and filled them with straw?

I plan to set some of these nests in the pen with the silkies and when sets, remove her nest and all to the coop, and put in another nest of straw and keep going that way. Is that an ok mangement plan? Thanks for any help with setting eggs the old fashioned way. I can't wait to see the hens with thier chicks!

 

[SunnyBrookeFarm]

Yes, that's sounds like a good plan. When my Silkies go broody,
they usually allow me to move them, eggs and all, to a new place "I choose",
away from the regular layers. Keeping food and fresh (non-frozen) water
conveniently near them allows her eggs to not get too cold when she leaves them to eat and drink.
I have even had good luck taking pipped Ameraucana eggs from an incubator and switching them
for my Silkie's eggs. She successfully hatched and raised "HER" five Ameraucana babies and they still
follow her around the farm, though they are much bigger than her now. She's "their" mom! I knew
her own eggs weren't fertile, but she didn't.

I like to use the hood tops to cat sand boxes and the bottoms and tops to older-style dog houses.
One dog house = two cozy brooders for a mom and eggs/chicks.

Just Friday, I successfully transplanted an AWOL Muskovie duck and her ten eggs back to my Silkie shed.
She LOVES her new dog house suite! After I put her eggs and her own feather fluff in it, then her;
she wagged her tail like a dog! She had wandered over to the neighbor's barn and set-up her nest in
a horse birthing suite (fortunately unoccupied).

 

[minister man]

Thanks for the help, do you have any pictures or further discriptions of the "Dog house suites" they sound like a neat idea.

 

[reereechickens]

Hi! I would like to see the doghouse suites also!