adoption mommy!

[chicken head34]

Hi!

I was wondering for future reference, im new to chickens and chicks. I have a phoenix and when i find him a gf can i put there eggs under a silkie? i heard silkies where great mothers. How would i know when the eggs are ready to put under the silkie? would they have to be freshly laid? sorry for the dumb questions,

new to hatching.

 

[Kedreeva]

You can put pretty much any egg under pretty much any broody bird; but the key is that the bird has to be broody or it won't work. So if you happen to have a broody silkie looking to hatch some eggs then yes, go for it. However, your phoenix female (when you get her) may herself go broody and I don't see that there's any harm in letting her have the eggs to hatch rather than moving them to a silkie unless your silkie has proven herself previously.

It's best to collect a batch of eggs before putting them under a chicken all at once. If you pick them day by day and put them under the chicken, you are staggering the hatch days. When the first chick hatches, the mom will typically wait a day or so before giving up on the other eggs (because she 'assumes' that they all started incubation the same day, so any that haven't hatched must be bad, even though this may not be the case). You can collect eggs for about 6-7 days beforehand; stored eggs should start to be incubated not more than 7 days after being laid (they CAN be, some people say they store them for 2-3 weeks, but this *can* affect your hatch rate.... not saying it WILL but it CAN and often does). Store them in an egg carton pointy end down at about 60 degrees, on a slight angle, and rotate them 180 degrees a couple times a day (as if they were in an incubator, but without the heat and humidity). Don't refrigerate them!

It's best to slip eggs under a broody at night, when she is least likely to notice the difference.