Are silkie eggs harder to hatch than other breeds? Opinions please...

Quote:
Sebrights are my easiest to hatch, and always the first. But mine aren't shipped, they're from my own breeders. Silkies, on the other hand, seem to be my hardest to hatch of all of my breeds.
 
I'm thinking incubator also. I have a home made bator and had great hatches with it. I'm using a hovabator forced air with a turner now and my hatches haven't been as good. I'm thinking lack of fresh air into the bAtor.
 
I've had good and bad hatches. I think there are a lot of factors that go in to hatching silkies, they sometimes just seem to be more sensitive.
 
I have 25 silkie eggs in lockdown. Three out of the 28 shipped were quitters. I find that bantams hatch 2 days earlier than standards (day 19). Maybe you have to up humidity/stop turning earlier? Will let you know how they go...1st time I'm using a bator.
 
I received 20 silkie eggs this past spring. Most of them (like 14-16) made it to hatch, and some were even peeping in the shell. None of them hatched
hmm.png
The vaulted skulls make it hard for them, and these were supposed to be hig percentage of vaulted skulls.
 
I really appreciate your responses. I have 10 eggs that I locked down yesterday evening. I checked them and think that I saw small movement in all of them, so I do believe that the chicks are alive. One thing I did, other than increase humidity was to enlarge the bottom holes to increase fresh air flow. Also, I'm leaving the red plugs OUT for the same reason. It's a bit more difficult to get the humidity up, but it's holding for now.

I mostly dry incubate since our inside humidity, even with our a/c on (I'm in Florida) runs between 45% and 50%. I've always increased the humidity to only about 50% during lock down and have always had great hatches. I've just about convinced myself that it is either the lack of fresh air OR just that these silkies (almost all have large vaulted skulls) are just more difficult to hatch.

I had bantam cochins previously and they hatched with no problems, so I don't think it's the egg size. Their eggs were even smaller than some of these silkie eggs.

Wish me luck... these eggs are lavender silkies and they aren't cheap!!
fl.gif
 
ehmm, i don't know but actually i want to have silkie but US prohibited exporting eggs outside so i can't have any silkie here.


but i love silkie, they're so cute and full of *feather* so i think they could become *pillow* when i sleep.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom