Silkie thread!

[Brandonbeth]

Pure silkie or not

 

[chicken pickin]

Pure silkie or not

Not pure, his feathers look smooth, not silkied.

 

[Annalog]

One of my silkies is like yours. She would not move or make a sound when I opened the nest box, but the other one that was broody in the nest box near her would fluff up and make all kinda sounds and nip at me if I got too close. They are both sharing 6 babies now.  I guess it varies from chicken to chicken 

My silkie just finished brooding and hatching out two chicks (out of 10) three days ago. She was very quiet, and did not leave the nest AT ALL. She was eating a tiny bit at first when I wasn't around, and would stick her butt out of the nest to poop. After a while, she stopped pooping, which I took to mean she wasn't eating, either (no food seemed to be missing). 
So, I brought food to her, and that helped, she continued to make 1 poop a day, which was easy to smell (lol, UGH!) and scoop out right away so it didn't foul her nest. I assume it was because it was winter, she didn't want to get off her eggs at the later stages of incuabation. She reacted just like yours though. Very quiet with only a little "rawr, rawr" growl if I checked under her gently. I'm new to all this, but after the hatch, got lots of advice from some forum members. Keep us posted! Are you wanting her to hatch, or stop brooding?

Thanks, @Adorkable and @lilpeepers. It is good to see that this is not uncommon.

I have been putting a small dish of mash in the nest each day but did not see much missing when I change it. I gave her a little scrambled egg, right in front of her, yesterday and that was gone less than an hour later. I will check for broody poops.

I would like her to hatch chicks if her health is not endangered. I have three eggs that should be fertile under her. Two are from the NH flock with our only NH rooster; he is four years old but the pullets in that flock are seven months old. The other egg is from a flock that is a year and seven months old.

I have not yet figured out how to have water available in her nest without the possibility of getting the eggs wet. That is one reason why I have been giving her mash instead of dry food. We have offered her water but she doesn't drink or eat when she is on the nest while we are present.

The range of temperatures within the coop has been 32°F to 77°F the past few weeks; it is currently 48°F just before sunrise and I have reset the high/low monitor. We have been leaving the pop doors open day and night as the pens are very secure. We do close the pop doors when it is going to be stormy or very cold. The coop is a converted shed.

When it is warmer, should I take her from the nest and put her by the regular food and water inside the coop and put her back on the nest after she has eaten or drunk something? So far she doesn't seem much changed in weight or appearance. I don't want to disturb her if it isn't necessary.

Or should I keep trying different wet foods in a dish in the nest, such as oatmeal, cream of wheat, cream of rice, etc.?

This Silkie was the most adventurous and friendliest of the four before she went broody. She is the only one who would ask to be petted and held. The other three seem more timid without their leader. I have not moved the broody as there are three nest boxes for four Silkies. She is in the nest by the pop door. None of the other Silkies have laid in the broody nest in the last three days. Instead, they have been laying in the nest on the other end or in the area underneath.

 

[lilpeepers]

Thanks, @Adorkable and @lilpeepers . It is good to see that this is not uncommon.

I have been putting a small dish of mash in the nest each day but did not see much missing when I change it. I gave her a little scrambled egg, right in front of her, yesterday and that was gone less than an hour later. I will check for broody poops.

I would like her to hatch chicks if her health is not endangered. I have three eggs that should be fertile under her. Two are from the NH flock with our only NH rooster; he is four years old but the pullets in that flock are seven months old. The other egg is from a flock that is a year and seven months old.

I have not yet figured out how to have water available in her nest without the possibility of getting the eggs wet. That is one reason why I have been giving her mash instead of dry food. We have offered her water but she doesn't drink or eat when she is on the nest while we are present.

The range of temperatures within the coop has been 32°F to 77°F the past few weeks; it is currently 48°F just before sunrise and I have reset the high/low monitor. We have been leaving the pop doors open day and night as the pens are very secure. We do close the pop doors when it is going to be stormy or very cold. The coop is a converted shed.

When it is warmer, should I take her from the nest and put her by the regular food and water inside the coop and put her back on the nest after she has eaten or drunk something? So far she doesn't seem much changed in weight or appearance. I don't want to disturb her if it isn't necessary.

Or should I keep trying different wet foods in a dish in the nest, such as oatmeal, cream of wheat, cream of rice, etc.?

This Silkie was the most adventurous and friendliest of the four before she went broody. She is the only one who would ask to be petted and held. The other three seem more timid without their leader. I have not moved the broody as there are three nest boxes for four Silkies. She is in the nest by the pop door. None of the other Silkies have laid in the broody nest in the last three days. Instead, they have been laying in the nest on the other end or in the area underneath.

I would have to say, after just having our first hatch, that it is absolutely magical! I hope you have good luck with yours! That is great that she is sitting on just a few eggs. That is one area in which I went wrong. I let her gather 10 and that was way too much. I put the water away from my girl, and as far as I could tell, she was not drinking it (no fluff in the water dispenser, which is impossible if she gets up!) So I also made her a mash.

From what I understand, you should be giving her chick starter (it has more nutrients) but my girl also seemed to gobble up fresh treats much more readily (plain greek yogurt with oats, raw broccoli and tomatoes, all chopped fine). I added a little chick starter to that to get her more nutrition. Remember, they only eat 20% of what they normally do. They hardly move, so they must not burn calories. My girl seems quite healthy now that it's all over.

I did not move mine off the eggs, ever. I think that would have upset her. I wanted her to do what she wanted to do. She really does seem to be in fine health now - her feathers are still shiny, she is up and eating and clucking away to her babies in the 10% of the time that she isn't keeping them warm, and very sweet to me. I found that any time I needed to mess with her or her coop at all, gently petting her for a while helped calm her down, and see that my hands were not going to be grabbing her eggs and threatening her.

Anyone else correct me if anything in my post seems misguided, as I said, it was my first hatch! Good luck Annalog!

 

[Annalog]

@lilpeepers, thanks, I forgot about chick starter for broody hens. I will get some later today. It was four years ago that Thyme, our only hen to go broody before, hatched and raised BC and LC (Things One and Two), two nearly identical NH roosters. BC is the father of two of the eggs under the broody while the moms are pullets from the chicks we got from Ideal Poultry in May. I choose three eggs for breakfast this morning that were laid yesterday and looked as much as possible like the three under the broody. Two of the three were definitely fertile and the other was iffy. Now I am not worrying that she may be disappointed by setting on infertile eggs.

Since Thyme never went broody again, we had a local farmer put a dozen eggs fathered by Mr. Milquetoast, the BR rooster in my avatar, in his incubator. A rooster and hen from that hatch are the parents of the other egg under the broody.

I need to decide on names for the Silkies now that I know that they are all pullets. I had been using spice and herb names for the hens but white ones aren't as common. I am leaning towards Arrowroot for the broody as her comb looks a lot like an arrow. I am considering Tapioca for the smallest one, Yucca for the bearded one, and maybe Peppermint for the one with a red spot for a comb.

 

[mom of silkies]

lavender would be cute! or maybe Nutmeg!

 

[Annalog]

lavender would be cute! or maybe Nutmeg!

My husband suggested Marshmallow. I think that he would call all the Silkies Marshmallow. He has a difficult time recognizing the differences between the chickens so the names he has come up with previously are Crooked Toe, BC (Big Comb) and LC (Little Comb), and Bitey.

 

[lilpeepers]

My husband suggested Marshmallow. I think that he would call all the Silkies Marshmallow.

He has a difficult time recognizing the differences between the chickens so the names he has come up with previously are Crooked Toe, BC (Big Comb) and LC (Little Comb), and Bitey.

Marshmallow is perfect! I might steal that someday - I would love to get a white silkie eventually. It is so funny and a little embarrassing - we have six blue silkies (since April), and we truly cannot tell them apart. There are two outliers - a Roo who is a lighter grey, and a hen who is darker grey, almost black. So - we named those (Beaker - Roo and Stormy - hen). But two identical hens and two identical roosters remain unnamed!

 

[Howlet]

im gonna name my white silkies when the come-
Sugarpuff

Snowpuff

Puffcloud

and Monty D

 

[arialp]

Nugget 9 weeks