How poor of layers are Silkies?

[KaylorFarms]

Hello,
I've seen that Silkies are poor egglayers, but if you go to the cackle hatchery website it says that their egg production is good. So can anyone here who's had experience with this breed tell how many eggs one hen usually lays a week? Thanks in advance!

 

[Gray Farms]

Its not so much that they are poor layers its that they typically want to set all the time. And when they are setting or wanting to set they stop laying. So their over all average eggs per year is typically much lower than most other breeds.

 

[sourland]

Many 'quality' silkies tend to lay a clutch and then go broody. I have routinely had silky hens that raised as many as 5 broods/year. In my experience hatchery bred birds appear to have non-silky DNA and may be somewhat more productive, but do not have the Silky puff ball like appearance.

 

[BarredRockMommy]

with our old sillkie who we had to put down to a prolapse she was always going broody on us, but if we took her eggs right away she just kept laying. It really ranges on how many ours laid a week(1-5 eggs/week) so.... Other people's silks may be different, but that was our girl. And their eggs are a smaller than average size eggs. Their eggs are the size of a average size pullet's first egg. I don't know if that made sense.

 

[CrazyChookChookLady]

My Silkie hen is a laying machine. I can count on at least 5 eggs a week from her. I want her to go broody, she's in with my Silkie Roo, but nothing yet...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My Silkies were fantastic layers... when they were laying. Probably 4 eggs a week. They spent WAY too much time broody for me, and I don't keep them any more. It doesn't matter if you collect eggs daily.. they will brood air!

I had some that were happy enough to only brood a couple times per year... those are the keepers. Other would go broody every third egg they laid, even when allowed to sit and brood and raise the young.. back to back to back... as mentioned at least 5 times per year.

If you "break" them right away they still usually take at least a week to get back to laying. And if you don't break them then 3 weeks sitting and often 6-8 weeks before booting the young and returning to lay... that's almost 3 months with no eggs.

But thinking back now... the broody's would often do a mini molt by the time they were done brooding (it's a challenge for their bodies) and never went into full blown winter molts. So that kind of off sets the time spent not laying while broody.

None of my birds were hatchery stock. My paint line was the least broody of them all, in the few years I was captive to Silkies.

 

[KaylorFarms]

My Silkies were fantastic layers... when they were laying. Probably 4 eggs a week. They spent WAY too much time broody for me, and I don't keep them any more. It doesn't matter if you collect eggs daily.. they will brood air!

I had some that were happy enough to only brood a couple times per year... those are the keepers. Other would go broody every third egg they laid, even when allowed to sit and brood and raise the young.. back to back to back... as mentioned at least 5 times per year.

If you "break" them right away they still usually take at least a week to get back to laying. And if you don't break them then 3 weeks sitting and often 6-8 weeks before booting the young and returning to lay... that's almost 3 months with no eggs.

But thinking back now... the broody's would often do a mini molt by the time they were done brooding (it's a challenge for their bodies) and never went into full blown winter molts. So that kind of off sets the time spent not laying while broody.

None of my birds were hatchery stock. My paint line was the least broody of them all, in the few years I was captive to Silkies.

Thank you for your helpful reply! Is it by any chance possible that hatchery silkies would tend to be less broody? I would really like to start a flock of silkies and breed them. But I would want to hatch the eggs myself

 

[danceswithronin]

Mine last year laid a TON of eggs, so many I ended up having to throw some out, but this spring half of the silkies I owned were constantly broody - that didn't bother me too much, because as long as I kept collecting their eggs, they'd keep laying them.. but they'd sit on the nest constantly in protest, and their broody poops smelled AWFUL. My group were hatchery chicks (Meyer).

I sold the whole flock of them off a few weeks ago (not because they were trouble or anything, just to make space for incoming birds).

 

[KaylorFarms]

Mine last year laid a TON of eggs, so many I ended up having to throw some out, but this spring half of the silkies I owned were constantly broody - that didn't bother me too much, because as long as I kept collecting their eggs, they'd keep laying them.. but they'd sit on the nest constantly in protest, and their broody poops smelled AWFUL. My group were hatchery chicks (Meyer).

I sold the whole flock of them off a few weeks ago (not because they were trouble or anything, just to make space for incoming birds).

Thank you! I also know that when you buy them as chicks, they're unsexed. How many roosters and hens did you end up with just out of curiosity?

 

[danceswithronin]

Thank you! I also know that when you buy them as chicks, they're unsexed. How many roosters and hens did you end up with just out of curiosity?

I ordered four chicks straight run (with one free chick of a different breed) and all four silkies turned out to be hens. I still wasn't sure on one of them up to 8 months of age though, until I actually caught her laying. I could have sworn she was a rooster otherwise.