incubator, hatch whenever you want. you also have to take care of them. silkies, you have to wait for them to go broody. but they do all the work of caretaking.
Any GOOD broody hen over a bator. With silkies, you can trick them to go broody at the drop of a hat. Just place them in an enclosed nest box with anything that looks like an egg. Bingo, there they set until the object hatches. I had 3 broody boxes in a coop that had there own runs enclosed runs. I would place a hen in the run and place some plastic easter eggs in at first. Once the hen goes broody, I would replace the plastic eggs with real ones.
Absolutely a good broodie silkie. i have never run into hatch problems with a broody, other than some eggs simply do not hatch. But when incubating, there seems to be a million things that can go wrong, and it's up to you to step in and do something about it. With my broodies doing all the work, the chicks seem healthier and happier. i've never even seen so much as a pasty butt when a broody is doing the work.
