Eggs 2 Days Apart?

[MichyA]

Hi all! I’m relatively new to chickens... I got my silkies last spring as chicks so I never hatched any babies of my own.
I have a very broody Silkie and I finally decided to let her sit on some eggs. Every day I go out there and she’s usually sitting on a few that I take from her and it’s got me feeling a bit guilty. Figured this is the perfect time to do it too!

I wanted to leave about 5 more or less under her. (I usually get 3-4 Silkie eggs a day) She only had two under her yesterday...and I left them. I expected to get another 2 or 3 from my my girls today and planned on putting them under her as well. Of course with the cloudy snowy weather we had the last two days the girls all decided to skip laying today. So my silkie hen has been sitting on 2 eggs since yesterday.

My question... could I add another egg or two or is it too late? I don’t want them hatching too far apart and risk Mama hen abandoning the nest to care for the chicks. Would eggs put under a hen 2 days apart be too far apart? The hatch date of the two under her would be approximately March 27th and the new ones that I’ll (hopefully) add tomorrow would be March 29th. Thanks!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have done that but took away the first hatching chicks until everyone had hatched then at night put everyone back under mom.

 

[JaeG]

It does depend on the hen but two days might not be too much of a stretch between chicks as the hen generally sits for 48 hours before taking her little family out into the world. If she can hear them coming she should sit tight, especially if you offer her and her hatched chicks a bit of food, and water from a spoon (I found that was the safest way to offer water to little ones).

 

[gimmie birdies]

I still do it my way, it will be your choice.

 

[lazy gardener]

IMO, if you are going to let her hatch eggs, you should give them all to her on the same day, and not allow any hens to add to her clutch. That way you have the chicks all hatching on the same day instead of her taking the early hatchers off the nest and abandoning the late eggs. You can save eggs for a week without any detriment to their hatchability. There are some excellent articles in the learning center about incubation (Hatching eggs 101) and managing a broody hen. I suggest that you read all you can. those articles will help you understand the incubation process as well as how to manage your broody hen.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had given all my eggs to a hen (12). Two ended up with dents, I moved those to an incubator, only one dented egg was fertile. I checked on the other ten under the hen, 2 were ice cold, 4 were kinda cold and 4 were toasty. I just moved all to the incubator. They are only on day 4 so they should be okay. I am thinking the cold ones will be a couple days off though. Usually I only put about 7 eggs under a hen. She was broody and is still broody, but she is only a year old. And the weather has been cold too. I would trust her again, but maybe in the warmer weather.