If I put Guinea fowl eggs under a broody Silky...

[Oblio13]

will she hatch them? Or are chickens programmed to get off the nest if nothing happens in 21 days?

 

[NoelTate]

I have had hens who refused to get off a nest when their eggs did not hatch, so I don't think they are necessarily programmed to stay on it 21 days only. That might vary from hen to hen, though. I also had one hen that abandoned her nest about halfway through, and I had to move her eggs to another hen that happened to be setting, luckily. No roosters these days, so I don't have to worry about eggs under them anymore....now I will have to worry about how to break them up when they go broody!

 

[GwenFarms]

I've never owned silkies, so I'm not sure how hard of sitters they are, but I do have a game hen sitting 16 guinea eggs right now and have used them in the past with no problems. I know both games and buff orps usually won't leave a nest without a hatch. I had a buff orp very nearly die once when she sat a found clutch of eggs in the woods. She had been missing for a couple of months and I stumbled upon her in the woods sitting on a clutch of stinky, rotten eggs. I've never seen a hen as thin as she had gotten down to.

I bet your silkies will hatch them just fine.

 

[Oblio13]

Well, I guess it's a moot point. I now have three broody Silkies, and they keep stealing the eggs back and forth from each other. All three are sitting between a couple bales of hay, and I have no doubt that if one gives up too soon, the others will take over.

I'm going to wait until day six and add a few Silkie eggs under them, too.