My first four!

[BlueEggBob]

I'm proud to announce four recently new additions to my yard bird flock! I'm extremely impressed with my Black Silky hens! If you need great mama hens, get a few Silkies! I have three Black Silkies and two of them have been great brooders so far! I have the four new chicks thanks to one mama. She's also partnered up with another one of my hens to help protect her new babies. They shared the nest almost all during the brood. Currently I have another Black Silky sitting on four more eggs which are due to hatch next week. I read articles about both keeping chicks separated from the flock and letting the mama protect them. I decided to take a chance and see how well the mama would do protecting the new chicks. I didn't just allow the chicks out into the scary new world right away. After the hatch I kept mama and babies together in a brooder box inside the coop for about a week. Then I placed mama and babies in a small pen overnight to give the rest of the flock a chance to get used to the new arrivals. The next morning I didn't get a chance to let mama and babies out of the pen because mama already hopped out and her babies were following her all over the coop. My rooster ( the baby daddy ) kinda was giving the little ones the 'eye' and it was a bit scary. But I stood in the coop for about an hour watching and seeing if everyone would behave. There was quite a bit of pecking and a few big squeaks and many squawks from the offended babies but the two mama's very quickly let the rest of the flock know to keep their beaks to themselves! After a few days I could see that the other big girls and daddy were going to play nice. It's been almost a month now and I still have the four babies!

This was a couple days after the hatch...

The broody mama's sharing the nest...

The baby daddy...

And last but not least, the baby mama's...

 

[tdhenson86]

I'm proud to announce four recently new additions to my yard bird flock! I'm extremely impressed with my Black Silky hens! If you need great mama hens, get a few Silkies! I have three Black Silkies and two of them have been great brooders so far! I have the four new chicks thanks to one mama. She's also partnered up with another one of my hens to help protect her new babies. They shared the nest almost all during the brood. Currently I have another Black Silky sitting on four more eggs which are due to hatch next week. I read articles about both keeping chicks separated from the flock and letting the mama protect them. I decided to take a chance and see how well the mama would do protecting the new chicks. I didn't just allow the chicks out into the scary new world right away. After the hatch I kept mama and babies together in a brooder box inside the coop for about a week. Then I placed mama and babies in a small pen overnight to give the rest of the flock a chance to get used to the new arrivals. The next morning I didn't get a chance to let mama and babies out of the pen because mama already hopped out and her babies were following her all over the coop. My rooster ( the baby daddy ) kinda was giving the little ones the 'eye' and it was a bit scary. But I stood in the coop for about an hour watching and seeing if everyone would behave. There was quite a bit of pecking and a few big squeaks and many squawks from the offended babies but the two mama's very quickly let the rest of the flock know to keep their beaks to themselves! After a few days I could see that the other big girls and daddy were going to play nice. It's been almost a month now and I still have the four babies!

This was a couple days after the hatch...

The broody mama's sharing the nest...

The baby daddy...

And last but not least, the baby mama's...

So glad to hear that your babies are doing well. I have let mommas hatch out many eggs with very few problems. It looks like you don't have Silkies. Are you sure that the pictures are of the Silkies? So glad the babies are doing well!

 

[ruby m w]

so sweet!

 

[BlueEggBob]

Well technically they're 'experiments' from a friend who has black and white silky stock and other assorted banties she breeds. She told me the hens I bought were purchased from an online live chick seller and from pure Black Silky stock, but who knows? The 'Ameraucana' I bought from her aren't truly recognized as such but they do lay blue/green eggs. I tell people they're Easter Eggers now just to be safe. All my hens were purchased from her and she likes to mix her breeds for fun. The black girl shown sharing her nest in the above posted picture should mostly be black silky. Unfortunately she's lost her crown feathers to her aggressively fighting away nest intruders. Here's the broody girl before she lost her doo!

Sorry for the confusion, the egg mama's and baby daddy are supposed to be ameraucana stock...

 

[tdhenson86]

Well technically they're 'experiments' from a friend who has black and white silky stock and other assorted banties she breeds. She told me the hens I bought were purchased from an online live chick seller and from pure Black Silky stock, but who knows? The 'Ameraucana' I bought from her aren't truly recognized as such but they do lay blue/green eggs. I tell people they're Easter Eggers now just to be safe. All my hens were purchased from her and she likes to mix her breeds for fun. The black girl shown sharing her nest in the above posted picture should mostly be black silky. Unfortunately she's lost her crown feathers to her aggressively fighting away nest intruders. Here's the broody girl before she lost her doo!

Sorry for the confusion, the egg mama's and baby daddy are supposed to be ameraucana stock...

Okay. That makes sense. I thought for a second that someone sold you the Bantam EEs as Silkies... Makes more sense now with your explanation and the picture.

 

[BlueEggBob]

Here's some new chick pics now that they're a month old.

 

[BlueEggBob]

Update...

My other surrogate mom had 2 of her 4 egg clutch hatch on labor day. It was a nice surprise!

 

[BlueEggBob]

Update on the new chicks...
3 out of 4 eggs hatched but one chick was attacked by another hen ( not surrogate mama ) and killed

The 2 remaining chicks have just followed mama out of the brooder box for the first time and are out into the scary world of the BIG chickens!

Mama taking her dust bath...

Mama had to let the others know she has babies now so things were a little crazy for a few minutes...
So far nobody is making waves!