Need advice please! Possible problem....

hmt007

In the Brooder
5 Years
Oct 6, 2014
15
0
24
Massachusetts
I am a "newbie" and the winter is starting here in MA. I have 4 younger silkies (3-8 months old), and 2 days ago took a silkie mom, her week old chick and her fertile eggs home. The 4 silkies huddle together in the coop, but the mom will not leave the brood box with the eggs and her baby. I am so scared that without huddling with the others she and her baby are going to freeze to death. I was thinking of doing the snugglesafe in the egg box, or possibly taking her inside for the winter. Any suggestions would be appreciated....I am an absolute nervous wreck right now!!
 
When I say brood box it is attached to the coop..... if you look to the left of the coop in this picture we built one that is attached and they can freely get to from inside the coop.



Everything I read about winter and chicken staying warm says that bantams will huddle together to stay warm, so i feel like there is nothing that is keeping her warm right now! Thank you!
 
It is not yet by any measure cold enough yet for a single silkie to freeze to death even in MA. If she is sitting on eggs she will not go to sleep with the other chickens. Even after they hatch she will keep with the chicks in a nest for weeks. I would be concerned about the chick or the eggs. If she hatched the chick from the clutch she is sitting on now, then the eggs may be dead. If they are fresh eggs then the chick won't have the mothering it needs.
 
It is not yet by any measure cold enough yet for a single silkie to freeze to death even in MA. If she is sitting on eggs she will not go to sleep with the other chickens. Even after they hatch she will keep with the chicks in a nest for weeks. I would be concerned about the chick or the eggs. If she hatched the chick from the clutch she is sitting on now, then the eggs may be dead. If they are fresh eggs then the chick won't have the mothering it needs.
x2
 
If the chicks is a week old, then the rest of the clutch is dead. Pick up and egg and listen to it, if there is nothing, Shine a flashlight through it, if nothing is moving, probably dead.

Mrs K
 

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