A quick little back story: we have 2 silkie chickens, a hen and a rooster. They're about a year old. The hen went broody, and hatched 2 sweet little babies, fast forward 2 months and both were taken by a hawk- just a few weeks apart-( we live in town. So I just didn't think it would be an issue, I was wrong) don't worry... we've since made the coop area "predator proof" ( hopefully) apparently in between the kidnappings(around December 21st)the hen started laying eggs again..I was surprised to find 4 eggs in her box, since she still had a baby following her around. We left for vacation Christmas Day, the house sitter called in tears on the 29th saying she couldn't find the other baby- thats apparently when the hawk took the second one- she felt terrible and we were devastated ( apparently my last minute predator-proofing wasn't good enough.. it's better now, no worries) OK, fast forward to monday Jan 4th when we returned home from vacation. Between the 4 eggs I put in the fridge before we left, and the ones my house sitter collected, there were 10 eggs in the fridge. I noticed the hen was hanging out in the hen house most of the day( yes, I have one of our Nest cameras out there
) I thought maybe she was sad bc her babies were missing
but the next day she only came out for about 30 minutes. I realized she had gone broody! She definitely wasn't happy when I moved her to see what we were working with... 5 eggs...yay! ( last time she sat on 3 and only 2 hatched) I ran inside, pulled all 10 eggs out of the fridge, marked them and took them out to her- bc a while back I had read a thread on here saying it was still possible for them to develop. I was very doubtful, but since she scooped every single one under her. I figured we could try...I mean, what could it hurt... right? Wellll....Today is day 12 of her sitting on 15 eggs. I candled every single egg, bc if they aren't developing I'd rather sneak them away from her now. Ya'll!!! 13 eggs are developing perfectly.
THIRTEEN! (We discarded the 2 that weren't developing
)
I'm in complete shock. I truly didn't think it would work! I'll update this post with pics tomorrow and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. 
for 13 babies! yay!!
) I thought maybe she was sad bc her babies were missing but the next day she only came out for about 30 minutes. I realized she had gone broody! She definitely wasn't happy when I moved her to see what we were working with... 5 eggs...yay! ( last time she sat on 3 and only 2 hatched) I ran inside, pulled all 10 eggs out of the fridge, marked them and took them out to her- bc a while back I had read a thread on here saying it was still possible for them to develop. I was very doubtful, but since she scooped every single one under her. I figured we could try...I mean, what could it hurt... right? Wellll....Today is day 12 of her sitting on 15 eggs. I candled every single egg, bc if they aren't developing I'd rather sneak them away from her now. Ya'll!!! 13 eggs are developing perfectly. THIRTEEN! (We discarded the 2 that weren't developing
)I'm in complete shock. I truly didn't think it would work!
I'll update this post with pics tomorrow and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. for 13 babies! yay!!
