After seeing what happened with the marans, I would never recommend to anyone keeping them together, but for some reason my silkies have a system figured out. One of my broodies was hatching Th-Sat and never left the nest. It's like she knew when it was time to give up. She was sitting on 9, and...
I have had just the opposite experience. My large breeds, I have to separate the broodies, but my silkie and d'uccle roosters are awesome daddies, and I have been letting hens hatch and raise chicks inside the coops and main pens for 2 years. I have 7 silkie hens with the rooster, so I usually...