Broody Hen & Lonely Rooster

[HookLineSilkie]

Hi all,
Just a few questions regarding chickens! I’m an totally new to this all. I have a married couple pair of silkies. They are both under a year old and are always together. My pullet laid her first egg Oct 26 and fast forward, I’m currently in lockdown right now. So today, my pullet went into her box to lay but never came out. She’s in there with her wings fluffed out sitting on a wooden egg and a sweet little egg, smaller than a ping pong. She came out to eat for about 5 minutes and went back in. Her water is not that close to her box so I’m thinking I’ll move that closer ASAP. Now my cockerel is sad and sits in front of my door, sad and bored... longing for his partner in crime. What to do? What to do?! Also, if she does hatch out chicks, will the rooster kill it? Will she lay a few more in the next few days, and then stop? I’m sooo new to this all. It’ll be cold soon so hoping this is the right time of year for all this.

 

[MaeIstrom]

Being a silkie rooster the odds are he will help look after chicks, I've even heard of people using silkie roosters as a "foster mom" for day-old chicks. As for the eggs AFAIK know normal behaviour is to keep laying eggs until there's a decent number *then* go broody, not much point laying new eggs for more than a day or two as the later ones won't hatch in time. If you've been removing her eggs she may have gone broody on just the one from frustration but hopefully you have some stored up. If not I would purchase a half-dozen eggs and put them under her. If more than a day has elapsed since she started you probably want to remove the one she's sitting on now when you put them in, otherwise she's likely abandon the other eggs 24 hours after the first chick hatches.

 

[HookLineSilkie]

Being a silkie rooster the odds are he will help look after chicks, I've even heard of people using silkie roosters as a "foster mom" for day-old chicks. As for the eggs AFAIK know normal behaviour is to keep laying eggs until there's a decent number *then* go broody, not much point laying new eggs for more than a day or two as the later ones won't hatch in time. If you've been removing her eggs she may have gone broody on just the one from frustration but hopefully you have some stored up. If not I would purchase a half-dozen eggs and put them under her. If more than a day has elapsed since she started you probably want to remove the one she's sitting on now when you put them in, otherwise she's likely abandon the other eggs 24 hours after the first chick hatches.

Thank you! I have 4 that are a few days old. I’ll put a few under her tomorrow.

 

[MTRBLE]

So I have a similar issue. My chickens are Silkies and I have a little mama - she's not really a mama yet, that's just what we call the hens or I guess they are still pullets as they are about 7 months old. Anyway they just started laying eggs a couple of weeks ago and we have taken all of the eggs out of the coop and there is no wooden egg in there, what's that about lol ???
So I have a little mama that isn't coming out of the hen box for two days now. we took both her eggs, the one from today and yesterday's but she is still sitting in there. What the heck am I supposed to do? Sh must know that there is no egg under her right? We don't want baby chicks right now going into winter but I don't know how to get her to stop sitting in there. Plus its kinda breaking my heart a little for her, I'm such a softy apparently- who knew- seriously nobody knew, not even me, its almost concerning how bad I feel for this little mama <3

 

[HookLineSilkie]

The wooden egg, lol... I put it there to get her broody because I want baby chicks! Be careful what you wish for!! Lol! I’m in Northern CA so weather isn’t too cold during winter but I can see other seasons being more ideal... So far, I have hatched out the one chick; the sweetest little partridge baby and I’m sooooo in love! I had two other eggs in the bator with him and they didn’t hatch so I drove three hours yesterday to find him some day old Silkie buddies. It was worth it! He’s so happy now!

 

[MTRBLE]

That is so sweet <3 I am in Northern California as well but further north. I'm still integrating 11 7-month-old littles in with my 2 1/2-year-old roosters that have always been just the two of them and house pets in a parrot cage until about a year ago. So they are still wanting in their parrot cage at night so that is in the coop with all of them but the older two are the only ones that go there the rest are on the perches. They are still getting used to the littles and i already have more roosters than I should have and I really don't want to fall in love with another one. My husband has already built me a huge area that I can section them all off so I don't have to get rid of any of them if they do start having issues together. I have 3 acres and at the rate I a falling in love with them all the entire 3 acres will be all sectioned off chicken towns lol - Still don't know what to do about my little girl just sitting in the box though does it just stop one day?