Broody? No eggs?

[jjaazzy]

I heard Silkies go broody and I think that is what I am dealing with but wanted to run this by you guys. My silkie hen is around 10 months old. I got a incubator for Christmas and just hatched out 3 beautiful silkie chicks. I gathered 10 days worth of eggs which was 8 eggs. Only the 3 oldest eggs hatched, the other 5 were not fertile ( broke open eggs at day 14 they never developed) She kept laying but now that I want to collect more for the incubator she has stopped and I don't know if the last four are fertile or not... I will try them and see but how come so many are not fertile I have one hen and 2 roosters. and now she has gone broody with eggs that are duds.......... what's going on?

 

[CrazyChookLady5]

I did have 4 silkie hens and 3 roos, now I have only 2 hens, but back when I did have 4 I would put around 5 to 6 eggs under my broodies and I would only hatch out 2 chicks, so I'm not sure if silkies have less fertile eggs, or if we both just have hopeless roosters

 

[jjaazzy]

Yep, I got the last four eggs in my incubator now, on day two and hoping I see some development. I don't know if I should order her some eggs or put her in the wire cage to try and reset the hormones. If I get her eggs I'm going to have to move her I guess to her own coop once the eggs hatch... IDK sounds like more research to be done by me. Yea....2 Roos and dud eggs???? Go figure?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Good luck trying to break a broody Silkie. They are by far the most broody breed. I would suggest keeping the eggs in your incubator and seeing if they develop. If they do, you can transfer the eggs under her and let her finish them off and raise the babies.

 

[chickenlver2013]

The best way to do it is put a big rock in her nest. My hen made a nest under the roost and I tried everything to get her to stop laying there. It started to get pretty nasty after a while. So I took some big rocks and she became un broody from her nest.

 

[jjaazzy]

oh gosh I don't know if I could start eggs and then give them to her to finish, what if she screwed it up... just like me to think I know more then the chicken! lol