Aloha From Kauai!

[Jessgitalong]

An adult silkie will kill them at that age if you just put them in there. She'll never let them by the food/water either. They can be as hostile as any other breed of chicken. The only way is if you set it up like mentioned above, where they have an escape and their own food/water. If it's a large enough area, you could put clutter in there like leaning pallets, wooden boxes on their side, etc.

I had no idea of the typical temperament of a silkie. I’ve only known ours who must be gentler than the typical hens of her breed.

We have a sliding door to seal off a nursery area in the coop we used when we were dealing with a predatory rat and needed a quick fix. We can use that to separate until we can verify there isn’t any threat, either way.

Looks like we won’t end up with as many chicks as we hoped, either. The eggs sat a little too long in tropical temps before incubating , I think. My guess is 4-5.

 

[Debbie292d]

I had no idea of the typical temperament of a silkie. I’ve only known ours who must be gentler than the typical hens of her breed.

We have a door to seal off a nursery area in the coop we used when we were dealing with a predatory rat and needed a quick fix. We can use that to separate until we can verify there isn’t any threat, either way.

Looks like we won’t end up with as many chicks as we hoped, either. The eggs sat a little too long in tropical temps before incubating , I think. My guess is 4-5.

Awe, so sorry! Hoping the rest hatch for you though.

Oh, don't get me wrong though. Silkies are a gentle sweet breed. It's just that I've seen how mean they can be, like any other chicken, when a littler one is around. Some will ignore them but some, for whatever reason, have to ensure that the little ones know they're the boss. I've had a couple of hens tenacious about the young ones when we've tried to integrate too soon. There are five about 8 months old that still sleep on the floor as they're afraid to go up the ramp to where the "mean old hens" are. I'm going to go out there some night and put them all up there, in the dark, and hope they stick up for themselves come morning.

 

[Jessgitalong]

Awe, so sorry! Hoping the rest hatch for you though.

Oh, don't get me wrong though. Silkies are a gentle sweet breed. It's just that I've seen how mean they can be, like any other chicken, when a littler one is around. Some will ignore them but some, for whatever reason, have to ensure that the little ones know they're the boss. I've had a couple of hens tenacious about the young ones when we've tried to integrate too soon. There are five about 8 months old that still sleep on the floor as they're afraid to go up the ramp to where the "mean old hens" are. I'm going to go out there some night and put them all up there, in the dark, and hope they stick up for themselves come morning.

Always good to prepare for the possibility you mention. Just didn’t occur to me, since I’m used to worrying about her safety!

Good luck with your attempt. Hope you can make some headway with getting the flock to integrate more.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! It's nice to meet you! Please make yourself at home here!

 

[Jener8or]

Hi! I hope the hatchlings are doing well!

I went to intermediate and high school on Kauai and did a couple years at KCC. My dad and step-mom are still there.

Fun to hear about your chickens! I hope this site is a great resource for you and them!

Thanks for joining and welcome to BackYard Chickens!

 

[Jessgitalong]

I had no idea of the typical temperament of a silkie. I’ve only known ours who must be gentler than the typical hens of her breed.

We have a sliding door to seal off a nursery area in the coop we used when we were dealing with a predatory rat and needed a quick fix. We can use that to separate until we can verify there isn’t any threat, either way.

Looks like we won’t end up with as many chicks as we hoped, either. The eggs sat a little too long in tropical temps before incubating , I think. My guess is 4-5.

UPDATE: I have learned a lot about the reasons for my low hatch rate (25%).
1. No consistency with stocking oyster shells. We were getting plenty of eggs and didn’t monitor that well, so the shells were too thin. The air sac inside the largest eggs were visibly oversized because of excessive moisture loss.
2. Humid weather. We had some days of very humid weather, which is part of living in the tropics. I kept the humidity on the high side of the recommendation. This could have led to the lack of air sacs I saw in multiple eggs.
3. Eggs sat out too long. I pushed the 10 day viability rule to its limit, so a few eggs just never developed.

More health focused now, I treated flock with Ivermectin, leading us to take the eggs of the last 10 days (pushing again) and throw them into the ‘bator. Selected out any large, porous eggs this time. Keeping humidity at 40% to adjust for the tropics.

Wild Jungle Fowl won’t stop her brooding, so decided to shove some under her today. Will update with results. Hatch date is April 13th.

 

[Raisin_The_Chicken]

hello and welcome!

 

[Jessgitalong]

Broody girl took a break. Her sister helped her out. RIR’s aren’t known for that, right? She’s past laying.

 

[TwoCrows]

Broody girl took a break. Her sister helped her out. RIR’s aren’t known for that, right? She’s past laying.
View attachment 4084237View attachment 4084238

Couple of cutie pies you've got there!