Late Chick

[aalomon]

The back story - One of my silkie girls went broody last month and I decided to let her hatch out some chicks. I gave her 8 good eggs and she happily settled down with them. She was in with the rest of the flock, but no one seemed to bother her so I didnt think there would be any issues.

On September 7th, I saw a black little fuzzball underneath her. After two more days there were a total of 5 chicks out and she had lost interest in the remaining eggs, instead choosing to focus on the chicks. I went in to pull the other eggs and got a decent surprise; there were 4 eggs still in the nest!!! Wait, 5 chicks plus 4 eggs mean she was incubating 9 eggs! I was 100% sure that I had put 8 eggs under her. I went inside and candled them just to see what was going on (and make sure that I really did still know how to count to 8). Three of the eggs were infertile, but the 4th looked good. The only thing was that it looked way behind in incubation. Looks like either silkie girl is an egg theif or another hen decided to get someone else to do the work for her.

Curiosity got the better of me and I threw it in the incubator. Fast forward to tonight (11 days after the last chick emerged) and I have a nice healthy chick chatting away in my incubator. Now for my question. Im assuming way too much time has passed to try to introduce this chick to the hen, but Ive never raised a singe chick before. Would I be able to take one of the chicks the silkie hen has been raising as a friend for this little guy once he's out of the incubator? Would the age/size difference be too great at this point? Should I just raise him as a single chick? Any Advice would be great. Ive had chickens for less than a year so Im still earning.

 

[Kneedles]

I have been told that it is better to keep young chickens together, so I would recommend taking one of the older chicks and keeping it with your new one (if your Silkie does not mind). It would be useful to know how big the size gap between them is, though.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

I have been told that it is better to keep young chickens together, so I would recommend taking one of the older chicks and keeping it with your new one (if your Silkie does not mind). It would be useful to know how big the size gap between them is, though.

X2
Try taking one of the older chicks to give your youngster a companion. But if that doesn't work, I think you've got yourself a full-time friend for a month or more. Unfortunately, it's the wrong season to be able to just run to your local feed store for a chick.