Please help....new to chicken hatching

[nanas zoo]

Help me please, as I am in a quandary!
I ended up with a rooster (my 1st one) and I am very confused as to the whole mating and natural egg hatching process. In addituon to the Silkie roo, I have 4 female Silkies. The rooster and 2 of the females are 12 weeks old. The 2 females on my avater are about 1- 1/2 years old. The rooster has taken an 1extreme liking to my white Silkie pictured and is constantly mounting her (I'm not sure that thats even the correct terminology). He also 'likes' the 2 younger ones, but not nearly as much as Fluffer. The other Silkie pictured (Nutter) is, and always has been, very broody. So here are my questions (and I thank you for your patience)....
~ Is the male old enough to inseminate? In my exhaustive research, I have gotten both yes and no answers.

~ If Pita were successful in impregnating Fluffer, would Nutter be ok to hatch her babies? Fluffer has only gone broody once since we have had her. Or would Fluffer 'know' that her eggs are feetile and then become broody?

~ Since baby chicks hatch on roughly the same day, how does that work if Fluffer only lays only 1 egg a day?

~ How do I know, providing impregnation has been successful, how many eggs to leave under fluffer?

I also have 3 EE and 2 Barred Rock. Am i going to disrurb Nutter, providing she is laying on fertile eggs, if i remove those eggs from underneath her and break her xycle of broodiness? I have read that that can happen, and then there go the fertilized eggs

I apologize for all of the questions and length of this post. I do have some comprhension issues due to some health issues, so maybe the answers have been right in front of my face with all of the reading i have been doing on this subject matter, but i just cant seem to find the apecifics I'masking about here.
Thank you in advance to anyone who can take the time to answer me!

 

[healtyfeathers]

Look up pictures of fertile eggs (the egg broken open so you can observe the yolk). You can check your eggs to see if they are being fertilized. When one of your hens goes broody, separate her into a small "broody pen" (A comfortable sized pen with a sheltered nestbox, feed and water). She will pace and be nervous for a day or so, but then should settle down on her nest. That way the other chickens won't bother her by trying to lay eggs under her while she's setting. When this happens, eggs get broken, and you can lose chicks. You can set any eggs under a hen. They will even hatch out different species (duck, quail, Guinea hen). Put all of the eggs under her the same day so that they will hatch around the same time. Only give her as many eggs as she can cover. If you see eggs peeking out, you've given her too many. Hope that answers a few of your questions!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Help me please, as I am in a quandary!
I ended up with a rooster (my 1st one) and I am very confused as to the whole mating and natural egg hatching process. In addituon to the Silkie roo, I have 4 female Silkies. The rooster and 2 of the females are 12 weeks old. The 2 females on my avater are about 1- 1/2 years old. The rooster has taken an 1extreme liking to my white Silkie pictured and is constantly mounting her (I'm not sure that thats even the correct terminology). He also 'likes' the 2 younger ones, but not nearly as much as Fluffer. The other Silkie pictured (Nutter) is, and always has been, very broody. So here are my questions (and I thank you for your patience)....
~ Is the male old enough to inseminate? In my exhaustive research, I have gotten both yes and no answers.

~ If Pita were successful in impregnating Fluffer, would Nutter be ok to hatch her babies? Fluffer has only gone broody once since we have had her. Or would Fluffer 'know' that her eggs are feetile and then become broody?

~ Since baby chicks hatch on roughly the same day, how does that work if Fluffer only lays only 1 egg a day?

~ How do I know, providing impregnation has been successful, how many eggs to leave under fluffer?

I also have 3 EE and 2 Barred Rock. Am i going to disrurb Nutter, providing she is laying on fertile eggs, if i remove those eggs from underneath her and break her xycle of broodiness? I have read that that can happen, and then there go the fertilized eggs

I apologize for all of the questions and length of this post. I do have some comprhension issues due to some health issues, so maybe the answers have been right in front of my face with all of the reading i have been doing on this subject matter, but i just cant seem to find the apecifics I'masking about here.
Thank you in advance to anyone who can take the time to answer me!

At 12 weeks I wouldn't count on him being "fertile" yet, but it's not impossible either. What you want to do is basically what the above poster said. Check a couple of the eggs by breaking them open and looking for the "bullseye" on the yolk. Here is a guide to help you in what to look for:


Once you have verified that the eggs are fertile then you can proceed with incubation.

No, chickens do not become broody because they know that the eggs are fertile. Some chickens never go broody while others are constantly broody. Different breeds have different levels of broodiness over the average. Silkies are one of those that are known to be broody.

The best way to hatch by broody is to collect the eggs daily. (Whatever eggs you want to set. Doesn't matter who laid what as long as they are fertile and the hen can cover them.) I agree that I would seperate the broody out. Many use a larger cage or dog kennel, some people are able to pen them out right in the coop. Of course there are those that don't seperate out either. Collect and store the eggs, upright in a carton. Temps should be less than 70 degrees and I personally prefer at least 60F for storing. Many people also believe that eggs should be turned while being stored as they would during incubation. Many people mark the date they were collected as well. Once you have what you want to set, stick them under your broody hen and let her do her thing. If you don't seperate the broody from the others you are going to want to mark the eggs that you give her and check daily to remove any that are added later.

If you have any more questions or need further clarification, throw it out here and someone will try to help. Hope this helps a little at least. Good luck.

 

[MelissaZeno]

We just found an egg under my broody hen and she had stepped on it. The chick had peeped and had its beak out. it is still breathing but it hasn't absorbed all of the yolk. Is there any way to save this chick? The entire shell was broken and I helped it out of the sack but I don't know what to do now, Should I put it back under the hen? I wouldn't have interfered if the shell had not been all broken.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We just found an egg under my broody hen and she had stepped on it. The chick had peeped and had its beak out. it is still breathing but it hasn't absorbed all of the yolk. Is there any way to save this chick? The entire shell was broken and I helped it out of the sack but I don't know what to do now, Should I put it back under the hen? I wouldn't have interfered if the shell had not been all broken.

Is the yolk sac still intact or has it been ruptured?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We just found an egg under my broody hen and she had stepped on it. The chick had peeped and had its beak out. it is still breathing but it hasn't absorbed all of the yolk. Is there any way to save this chick? The entire shell was broken and I helped it out of the sack but I don't know what to do now, Should I put it back under the hen? I wouldn't have interfered if the shell had not been all broken.

Personally. I would get a small box or container, put a coffee cup in the box. Put a damp paper towel in the bottom of the cup and put the chick in the cup. If you have a thermometer you can stick in the box that would be best and place the box under a light and try to get the heat no hotter than 100 but no less than 95F. If the sac is not ruptured there is a decent chance that if you can keep it from getting ruptured (which is hard to do) it will absorb the yolk and do ok. (Putting it in the coffee cup keeps it from being able to move too far and hopefully will give it a better chance of NOT rupturing the yolk. The box is just in case it does manage to get out of the cup, it's still confined. Those guys can be pretty determined.

My next to last hatch I had one that hatched during the night and hadn't absorbed the yolk, so this is what I did. We were lucky enough that it didn't rupture and did absorb and he was very healthy.

You might want to put a little surgar (one teaspoon to a quart) in the water or if you have save a chick on hand that's even better, and periodically try to get the chick to take some either by offering it on a spoon or by dropper so that it doesn't dehydrate.

If the chick seems overly hot, panting very agitated you will want to pull it back away from the light or higher the light decreasing temp. Mine took the majority of the day to absorb, but if yours is bigger it may take longer.

 

[MelissaZeno]

It is still intact and the chick is still breathing.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

It is still intact and the chick is still breathing.

Then it has better chances of surviving if it doesn't rupture.

 

[MelissaZeno]

Thank you for your help. I will let you know what happens, I have a heat lamp on the chick now.

 

[MelissaZeno]

How long will it take for the yolk to be absorbed?