Is my silkie hen supposed to lay on her eggs?

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PaulaLang

PaulaLang

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Hi my name is Paula and I am a newbe to BYC and raising chickens. I got my first three yesterday and my hen already laid an egg. I was sooo excited! But since she's laid it, she has just forgotten about it:(:( so I don't know now if it's viable or what to do! HELP!
 
Silke's go broody, as a breed, but since she just now got to your place, she needs time to adjust. She isn't likely to go broody at the moment she arrives.

You'll know when or if she decides to go broody. This is nature and she's an animal, she isn't on auto pilot.
Give her some time, relax and enjoy your new birds. What will be, will be.
 
Thanks for your reply. I have been searching every site possible for an answer! So is the egg ok or just wait and see?
 
images


Welcome to BYC!

All hens lay eggs. And while Silkies are more likely to go broody, (set on eggs), not all of them do. Broodiness comes from hormones. It can take a while in the spring to get those hormones going. Give her time. Make sure the nest box is in a quiet dark corner. You might even add some curtains for privacy as broodies love dark boxes. Keep some fake eggs in the nest box at all times. Not golf balls, but real looking fake eggs. You can replace these fake ones with real ones should she start to set on them. And when she does go broody, she will lay a clutch of eggs first before beginning the incubation process.

So just hang in there and I hope she goes broody soon for you!

Here is an article on broodies you might want to read in our learning center....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/broody-hens

Good luck with your Silkie and welcome to our flock!
 
Yes, you might want to remove this egg and replace it with a fake egg. You can keep collecting her eggs and if she should go broody, you can replace the fake ones with the real ones. :-)
 
Ok so what do I do with the eggs when I collect them?
 
Do you have a rooster in that the eggs are fertile? If so, you can start to collect them in an egg carton you store on the counter, large end up. If after a week she is not broody, you can incubate them yourself. Some people say you can store them in the frig, but I have never done this so I can't say.

If they are not fertile, they won't grow a chick, in which case you can eat her eggs.
 
Ok great! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Sorry for sounding so stupid, but this is my first experience with all this! I have two roosters so I'm sure it's a fertile egg, I just didn't know what to do for it to be ok since she's not laying on it. And I think I will purchase an incubator today. Again thank you.
 
You might want to do some reading in our learning center here on BYC on all the aspects of incubation, brooding, raising and keeping your flock happy and healthy...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

Not every egg is fertile, so you will want to incubate several eggs at a time. The first link I included here has a lot of info on hatching eggs and raising the babies.

But hopefully your Silkie will go broody this spring!
 
Thanks for the reading tips it helped so much. Great idea. It answered all my questions and put my mind at ease.
 

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