anything different for hatching silkies?

[jcskowronek]

i decided i want to start with hatching silkies, partly because 1 of my 4 is a rooster, and i would love to be able to use eggs from my chickens. is there anything special i have to do to hatch bantams/silkies, or is it the same as other chickens?

thanks
julia

 

[AmyLynn2374]

i decided i want to start with hatching silkies, partly because 1 of my 4 is a rooster, and i would love to be able to use eggs from my chickens. is there anything special i have to do to hatch bantams/silkies, or is it the same as other chickens?

thanks
julia

Basically, it's all the same. I did find with the silkie eggs I hatched 6 weeks ago (that were shipped) I had to run my humidity a little higher than I normally do because the low humidity incubation I generally run was too low as these eggs were real small and loosing moisture faster so the air cells were growing faster. Bantams breeds are known to hatch a day or two earlier, but that does not necessarily mean that they will, just that it's not uncommon.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Odd, I'm the opposite. I have to run my Silkies eggs as dry as possible (unless they're porous, I try not to set those). When I can't get the humidity lower than 45%, I end up with a lot of DIS chicks :/

OP- I'd just incubate them as you normally would. If you've already got things tweaked and its working, stick with it! Best of luck!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Odd, I'm the opposite. I have to run my Silkies eggs as dry as possible (unless they're porous, I try not to set those). When I can't get the humidity lower than 45%, I end up with a lot of DIS chicks

OP- I'd just incubate them as you normally would. If you've already got things tweaked and its working, stick with it! Best of luck!

These were little. I think they were smaller than the black Japanese bantams I hatched last year. I have 4 pet quality silkies (non bearded) that lay a medium size egg, but these were shipped eggs from @RubyNala97 and she does such an awesome job storing and packing that when they got here the air cells were so small some I couldn't even see. So I started them at the 30% I normally incubate at. But within the first week the air cells were growing too quickly. (I always monitor my air cells, especially with a new source of eggs.) She said that she incubated hers 40-50% and sure as heck, that's where I ended up incubating between and let me tell you, even though I was reading the air cells, it was the most uncomfortable thing because I always hatch around 30%. But I had 14 go into lockdown and 12 come out healthy and happy. Her birds are beautiful and bearded. I just love them and the chicks are looking very promising. My avatar pic is one of the chicks. (And these were not porous at all.)

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

These were little.  I think they were smaller than the black Japanese bantams I hatched last year. I have 4 pet quality silkies (non bearded)  that lay a medium size egg, but these were shipped eggs from @RubyNala97
 and she does such an awesome job storing and packing that when they got here the air cells were so small some I couldn't even see. So I started them at the 30% I normally incubate at. But within the first week the air cells were growing too quickly. (I always monitor my air cells, especially with a new source of eggs.) She said that she incubated hers 40-50% and sure as heck, that's where I ended up incubating between and let me tell you, even though I was reading the air cells, it was the most uncomfortable thing because I always hatch around 30%. But I had 14 go into lockdown and 12 come out healthy and happy. Her birds are beautiful and bearded. I just love them and the chicks are looking very promising. My avatar pic is one of the chicks.  (And these were not porous at all.)

Gotcha. Probably size. My Silkies eggs are fairly large, bigger than one might expect them to be. Love the avatar, Ruby does have lovely birds

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Gotcha. Probably size. My Silkies eggs are fairly large, bigger than one might expect them to be. Love the avatar, Ruby does have lovely birds

My pet quality stock is fairly good sized too. I never understood when people talked about silkie eggs being small....I was surprised when I unboxed these little things....lol