Broody silkie mixed batch (round two)

[electrycmonk]

So, last May was our 'Tag-team' silkie hatch-a-long. Well, over the last 3+ months our 3 original Silkie hens (Flappy, ghost, & Tina) had been fluctuating who would be broody or all 3 at once... Then the Silkie baby hen started to join them at Thanksgiving...
Well, a little over a week ago I desired to see who wanted the 1st batch. The baby hen took over and has been very "Broody" with the eggs.

This batch is a twist. She's getting only 2 silkie eggs the rest are from the big flock. A couple OE, an EE & a Jersey Giant(fingers crossed)
My notes from 1st candling on 2/3/21
Are as follows :
Silkie 1, 2, 3 = spots and fine veins
OE 1 = dark yoke; 2,3,4 = more veins than silkies

So here they are as of right now. 2/8/21
silkie 1 & 3 (is 8+ days)
Silkie 2 = MIA
OE/EE 1,2,3,4 all have solid formations much further along than the silkies
**OE "B" = surprise showed up since 2/3/21 but, already looks like silkie 1&3
**Jersey's egg is not showing anything yet at 3-5 days in the nest (I wanted to catch one still warm from laying and it took a while to time it right to get that one. If this flops, there's several more weeks in the year.)
So here are the pics ...
In Order of:
Silkie 1, OE "B", Silkie 3
Then OE/EE 1,2,3,4 & Jersey Girls
Pics are gonna be large and unedited...















Now I know that I had dialogue with several on how many eggs to put under a silkie... As it turns out when this weekend hits if the less productive ones are still showing too slow, I'll just pull them and feed them to the dogs... A few veins are nothing to sweat.

 

[007Sean]

So, last May was our 'Tag-team' silkie hatch-a-long. Well, over the last 3+ months our 3 original Silkie hens (Flappy, ghost, & Tina) had been fluctuating who would be broody or all 3 at once... Then the Silkie baby hen started to join them at Thanksgiving...
Well, a little over a week ago I desired to see who wanted the 1st batch. The baby hen took over and has been very "Broody" with the eggs.

This batch is a twist. She's getting only 2 silkie eggs the rest are from the big flock. A couple OE, an EE & a Jersey Giant(fingers crossed)
My notes from 1st candling on 2/3/21
Are as follows :
Silkie 1, 2, 3 = spots and fine veins
OE 1 = dark yoke; 2,3,4 = more veins than silkies

So here they are as of right now. 2/8/21
silkie 1 & 3 (is 8+ days)
Silkie 2 = MIA
OE/EE 1,2,3,4 all have solid formations much further along than the silkies
**OE "B" = surprise showed up since 2/3/21 but, already looks like silkie 1&3
**Jersey's egg is not showing anything yet at 3-5 days in the nest (I wanted to catch one still warm from laying and it took a while to time it right to get that one. If this flops, there's several more weeks in the year.)
So here are the pics ...
In Order of:
Silkie 1, OE "B", Silkie 3
Then OE/EE 1,2,3,4 & Jersey Girls
Pics are gonna be large and unedited...
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Now I know that I had dialogue with several on how many eggs to put under a silkie... As it turns out when this weekend hits if the less productive ones are still showing too slow, I'll just pull them and feed them to the dogs... A few veins are nothing to sweat.

Some of those look mighty porous!

 

[electrycmonk]

Yeah, you can lead a horse to water.....

ETA: this seems to be an ebb n flow with most of them... Just like the high and low tides...

 

[Kiki]

 

[electrycmonk]

So a really brief update.....

Texas Covid-snowmagedden aced all that batch of eggs.. 1 or 2 each day with the rolling blackouts and all that mess.

let the broody Momma try again for the Easter hatch-a-long and of that batch of 5 one made it all the way to hatching.

Then a few weeks into that 2 of the other silkie Mommas went full tilt broody again....

let the “cotton ball” have a batch of 5 EE & OE from the main flock to sit on.... two failed to finish at some point midway... 3 safely hatched and are doing great.... then the young Momma from last years 1st go-round joined in with several. I trimmed her stash down to 5 eggs....
All 5 hatched. The last 2 were a bit of a scare initially but, everything turned out great and they are thriving wonderfully. One has a minor pseudo-pastie butt issue on the tail feathers & yet not touching the vent skin at all. I’ve cleaned it twice so far....

so here’s an update on all of them this cycle.
All pics from this week. (AKA less thank 7 days old)

 

[electrycmonk]

Updates with photos freshly taken ~30 minutes ago…. Each post will be 1 chick. Starting with this one:
Silkie yellow fuzz
all became this cotton ball with spunk.



So anyone want to guess the sex? Age? ~6 1/2 weeks. (Yeah I know the usual I have read is something like 8 weeks minimum….)

 

[electrycmonk]

This was very likely “Tina’s” egg she is a sizzle.




This is #2 of the ~6 1/2 week olds.

 

[electrycmonk]

Here is the really gray & tan #3 silkie egg:




also ~6 1/2 weeks old.

 

[electrycmonk]

This is the EE that is from “Reece” the brown egg oops from last years 1’s round. The silkie pap is either the cotton ball or the mostly blackish one from last years batch that’s currently “2nd roo”… note the feathers on her ankles.




(Why are you subjecting me to this at such a late hour of the night???”)

Also the 6 1/2 week ish.

 

[electrycmonk]

This is a much darker charcoal in daylight…




#4 silkie of this batch of 5 eggs; also a ~6 1/2 week hatchling.