how many egg will a silkie lay before sitting on them?

[member9236]

i have one silkie hen with one silkie rooster age about 5-6 months I think
the hen started laying about week or tow ago now there is about 8 eggs and I think will still laying
when will she sit on them
some notices:
the weather is hot here
I dont know if the rooster is grown up or not or even if the eggs is fertile I didnt hear him crowing or dancing but he is the same size or a little bigger the the hen
any suggestions as I do not prefer to remove the eggs as maybe some is fertile and I want her to used to setting on eggs and I am afraid if I removed the eggs maybe she will not set on them in the future
sorry about my bad english and I will try to put pictures on the future
another question when the rooster is grown up for sure how many chicks should i expect yearly when the eggs hatch will the hen start laying directly or take a break
thanks

 

[AmyLynn2374]

i have one silkie hen with one silkie rooster age about 5-6 months I think
the hen started laying about week or tow ago now there is about 8 eggs and I think will still laying
when will she sit on them
some notices:
the weather is hot here
I dont know if the rooster is grown up or not or even if the eggs is fertile I didnt hear him crowing or dancing but he is the same size or a little bigger the the hen
any suggestions as I do not prefer to remove the eggs as maybe some is fertile and I want her to used to setting on eggs and I am afraid if I removed the eggs maybe she will not set on them in the future
sorry about my bad english and I will try to put pictures on the future
another question when the rooster is grown up for sure how many chicks should i expect yearly when the eggs hatch will the hen start laying directly or take a break
thanks

There is no guarentee that the hen will become broody and sit at all. Even though silkies are known as a broody breed, that doesn't mean that they will. I had 4 silkie hens for over a year that never, not once, went broody. Some birds will be broody frequently. There is no expectations with an unknown bird. After a broody hatches chicks she doesn't go right back to laying as soon as they hatch.

Removing eggs from a nest does not factor in whether they will become broody again or not. I wish it did, cause I am constantly taking eggs from my broody hens and they are stubborn enough to keep at it until I cage them to break them. And they continue to become broody again after a while.

I would suggest cracking a few eggs open to check for fertility rates and see if the cockerel is even mature enough to be fertilizing eggs.

If she does go broody and dedicates herself to sitting, after four or five days you can candle the eggs and check for development.

 

[member9236]

thanks for reply
and happy to be in this forum very great info here

concerning the eggs the day after I wrote this thread the hen started sitting in her 8 eggs and I think because the weather get a little colder now here
I will wait some days and try to candle the eggs as you suggested
if not clear I will let her set for 21 days and if nothing hatched I will crack them
so any suggestion on how to encourage the rooster to do his job I didnt see them mating before and I watched the dance too but didnt see it also but once I saw him suddenly started running a kind of strange way for no obvious reason made me laugh in fact I am like *** hhh and today I saw the hen kissing him or something when she was in a break from sitting in her eggs
I dont watch them a lot we will see after some time


concerning if removing eggs from a nest does not factor in whether they will become broody again or not
thats what I heard from some one online I am very new to chicken
and I read some where also that mass egg production and commercial incubation affect the natural instincts of chicken like going broody and sitting on eggs
but I think if the chicken was hatched naturally then even removing eggs once and awhile from her is not that big of deal
but in my opinion although I am new if I were you I will let her sit on eggs once and awhile

 

[AmyLynn2374]

thanks for reply 

and happy to be in this forum very great info here 


concerning the eggs the day after I wrote this thread the hen started sitting in her 8 eggs and I think because the weather get a little colder now here 

I will wait some days and try to candle the eggs as you suggested 

if not clear I will let her set for 21 days and if nothing hatched I will [COLOR=333333]crack them [/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]so any suggestion on how to encourage the rooster to do his job I didnt see them mating before and I watched the dance too but didnt see it also but once I saw him suddenly started running a kind of strange way for no obvious reason made me laugh in fact I am like *** hhh and today I saw the hen kissing him or something when she was in a break from sitting in her eggs 

I dont watch them a lot we will see after some time [/COLOR]



concerning if removing [COLOR=333333]eggs from a nest does not factor in whether they will become broody again or not [/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]thats what I heard from some one online I am very new to chicken [/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]and I read some where also that mass egg production and commercial incubation affect the natural instincts of chicken like going broody and sitting on eggs [/COLOR]

but I think if the chicken was hatched naturally then even removing eggs once and awhile from her is not that big of deal

but in my opinion although I am new if I were you I will let her sit on eggs once and awhile 

If she is truely broody and the eggs are fertile you should see development by 5 days of constant sitting. Roos are fast and you often don't see them doing their job, however, it may take a young cockerel a while to figure it out and get the job done.

Commercial birds and breeds used for egg productions (like the Rhode Island reds) have been bred to not be broody. That is the manner of which the "are affected". Intentionally breeding that trait out of the birds.

I've had my chickens for 2 years now, all of which I have hatched myself, and I can say, if you have a hen that is predispositioned to be broody, that hen is going to be broody rather you want it to or not. Rather you take the eggs, have fake eggs, it's not going to matter. Broodiness is a hormone thing, not a habit. I have to break my Broodies by caging them away from the coop, or they will not break even though I do not let them sit on eggs, and won't go and eat like they should, and range. I do not like having broody hens. I do not want my hens to be broody.

When my silkies are old enough, I may let them if they so desire, but I prefer to incubate my eggs myself.

 

[member9236]

I will give her a couple of days and try to candle them
after she lay 8 eggs she sat on them for day or two constantly as far as I know then yesterday at morning I find her sitting in the coop where the rooster is first I thought she is taking a break so let her and when I checked her again at mid day and before sunset I saw her sitting on a date in the ground so I guessed that she forgot about her eggs location or something so I put her in the empty room where she lay the egg and locked her there with feed and water and today all she is sitting on the eggs
so after two days we will see what happen