Like three weeks ago, I noticed one of my silkies was sitting on some eggs. I let her do what she wanted to, figuring I could just sell the chicks once they hatched. well, about a week later, i noticed I had stopped getting eggs... every morning when i went to collect the eggs, there were none! i figured my hen Erica was sitting on 2 or 3.. but when i looked she was sitting on TWENTY ONE EGGS. 21!!!
She managed to keep them all covered and warm.. I don't even know how! i can't believe I didn't figure this out sooner! It was late at night when I found all the eggs, so I figured I'd deal with it in the morning. In the morning when I went to go check up on Erica's 21 eggs, I found one of my other hens in the nest box with her. about 10 minutes later she got up and left. she has laid her egg in Erica's nest box and Erica was raising it. oh jeez, what a strange situation this was..
Well, I had come up with an idea. i marked all the eggs, so this way, I could go out every morning and collect the eggs that aren't marked, meaning they were just laid. About a week had passed, and everything was going well, except Erica was getting pretty tired of sprawling herself out to cover 21 eggs. she's only a little bantam silkie! so, i decided to candle ALL 21 EGGS , and get rid of the non-fertile ones. (ones with no chick development.) Since they had been in there pretty long, they weren't really edible, so I decided to throw the non-fertile rotten eggs at trees in the woods. Pretty fun times
I narrowed it down to 13 fertile, developing eggs. I estimated on the age of most of the eggs, and i let erica get back to work. she was much happier sitting on only 13! A few days passed, and I was collecting eggs daily again, when another one of my hens, Frank, was in the nest box with Erica. I figured she was just laying and would leave soon and i could collect her egg, but a few days passed. She was brooding the nest with Erica. I never thought I would see two hens sharing a nest, along with all the other hens still laying in the same nest box.
I was so confused!
They got along nicely incubating the eggs together, until yesterday. Yesterday, when I was checking up on them, Frank got startled and jumped off the nest. Two eggs rolled together and hit each other, because all those eggs in that one nest box had created a ditch in the shavings .. Well, one of them got slightly cracked, and I figured it would die, so I brought it into the house and put it into my brinsea mini-eco incubator with my other batch of eggs.(totally off topic.) The cracked egg was ready to hatch when I candled it, and the chick started pipping, so I decided there was no need to take special care of it since it was ready to hatch anyways. I put it back in the coop, and once it hatched, the hens started fighting! Erica kept pushing Frank off the nest, and Frank was attacking Erica! Although this originally was Erica's nest, I wish Frank could take over, as she is a much better mommy. They pushed the eggs everywhere and trampled their own new chick fighting over the nest.. i had to do something. I put the chick in my brooder, although it was sad to see the little girl all alone in there. She was so scared
Frank was trying to keep her under her wing, but Erica wanted her chick back. As the other eggs started hatching, I had to bring them inside to hatch in my brinsea incubator in the house because the hens fighting created a bad environment for a chick to be hatching.. Now five have hatched, I have them all in the brooder, two more are pipping outside, and these chicks are only hours old and they have never seen their mom(s). If i bring the chicks anywhere NEAR the coop, the hens start fighting. I don't know what to do. I want to leave the chicks with their mom(s) but i just can't, they'll fight too much and hurt the chicks.
I don't really know what i should be doing, I'm so confused and all of this doesn't really make sense! Every time an egg pips I bring it inside to hatch, then put it in the brooder. all my girls are silkies, and I've never seen such a ruckus in the coop! I feel so bad taking away the chicks, but those chicken mommas both want to keep the babies.
I plan on keeping two chicks, and selling the rest. At what age should I sell them? three days? a week? idk.. Easter chickies!
Also, i don't want to keep roosters, I have already got one of those.
any way to tell a rooster from a hen at this age? i usually just look at the rate of growth and their personalities toward me/the other chicks and guess-timate whether it'll grow up to be a rooster or a hen.
i just really don't know what to do about this whole situation. ha-ha ! And i didn't know what category to put it under. chicks/ hen behavior and egg laying? incubating/hatching eggs?
this is so long, no one will probably read this! ha-ha ..!!!
Well, I had come up with an idea. i marked all the eggs, so this way, I could go out every morning and collect the eggs that aren't marked, meaning they were just laid. About a week had passed, and everything was going well, except Erica was getting pretty tired of sprawling herself out to cover 21 eggs. she's only a little bantam silkie! so, i decided to candle ALL 21 EGGS , and get rid of the non-fertile ones. (ones with no chick development.) Since they had been in there pretty long, they weren't really edible, so I decided to throw the non-fertile rotten eggs at trees in the woods. Pretty fun times
I narrowed it down to 13 fertile, developing eggs. I estimated on the age of most of the eggs, and i let erica get back to work. she was much happier sitting on only 13! A few days passed, and I was collecting eggs daily again, when another one of my hens, Frank, was in the nest box with Erica. I figured she was just laying and would leave soon and i could collect her egg, but a few days passed. She was brooding the nest with Erica. I never thought I would see two hens sharing a nest, along with all the other hens still laying in the same nest box.
They got along nicely incubating the eggs together, until yesterday. Yesterday, when I was checking up on them, Frank got startled and jumped off the nest. Two eggs rolled together and hit each other, because all those eggs in that one nest box had created a ditch in the shavings .. Well, one of them got slightly cracked, and I figured it would die, so I brought it into the house and put it into my brinsea mini-eco incubator with my other batch of eggs.(totally off topic.) The cracked egg was ready to hatch when I candled it, and the chick started pipping, so I decided there was no need to take special care of it since it was ready to hatch anyways. I put it back in the coop, and once it hatched, the hens started fighting! Erica kept pushing Frank off the nest, and Frank was attacking Erica! Although this originally was Erica's nest, I wish Frank could take over, as she is a much better mommy. They pushed the eggs everywhere and trampled their own new chick fighting over the nest.. i had to do something. I put the chick in my brooder, although it was sad to see the little girl all alone in there. She was so scared
I don't really know what i should be doing, I'm so confused and all of this doesn't really make sense! Every time an egg pips I bring it inside to hatch, then put it in the brooder. all my girls are silkies, and I've never seen such a ruckus in the coop! I feel so bad taking away the chicks, but those chicken mommas both want to keep the babies.
i just really don't know what to do about this whole situation. ha-ha ! And i didn't know what category to put it under. chicks/ hen behavior and egg laying? incubating/hatching eggs?
