Possible hatchlings?? Help! Advice?!

[Chicken poppy]

Your hen will get off the nest for breaks, sometimes quite often if it's warm out. A half-hour or so to stretch the legs, poop, have a dust bath... Isn't going to harm the babies. Even longer is likely fine. But if she's not coming back to the nest or growl/purring, she may be losing her broodiness.

My SLW hasn't ever gone broody, but she's a big girl. I'd assume Silkie eggs should be okay, but I know some larger breeds can crush smaller eggs - like you could give a Silkie some quail eggs, but they prolly wouldn't last under a bramah etc...

Eggciting to hear they're developing well.

Heard it's starting to toast up over there. We're across the ditch in NZ and it's a lovely spring day today... Now as long as everyone plays nice, we can get outta lockdown soon.

Our lockdown here was a bit bumpy at first but its getting much better now andi hope it gets better there to!

 

[NatJ]

I love plymouths, once they hatch you can instantly tell the gender!

their sex links, so you simply tell by the dot on their head, if i remember correctly, if its big, its male, small, female!

Not quite.

"Plymouth Rock" is a breed that comes in many colors: White, Barred, Buff, Partridge, etc.

The only ones you can sex by color are the Barred Plymouth Rocks (also called Barred Rocks.)

And they are autosexing, not sexlinks.

Sexlinks are one-time hybrids. To get them, you cross one color of male with a different color of female and you can sex the chicks by color. But when they grow up and produce chicks, you cannot sex those by color.

Autosexing means they breed true, and you can sex them in every generation. So you can sex purebred Barred Rocks by color (the spot on their head.)

Yes, the males usually have a larger head spot and the females usually have a smaller head spot or none at all.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Not quite.

"Plymouth Rock" is a breed that comes in many colors: White, Barred, Buff, Partridge, etc.

The only ones you can sex by color are the Barred Plymouth Rocks (also called Barred Rocks.)

And they are autosexing, not sexlinks.

Sexlinks are one-time hybrids. To get them, you cross one color of male with a different color of female and you can sex the chicks by color. But when they grow up and produce chicks, you cannot sex those by color.

Autosexing means they breed true, and you can sex them in every generation. So you can sex purebred Barred Rocks by color (the spot on their head.)

Yes, the males usually have a larger head spot and the females usually have a smaller head spot or none at all.

Hi! Yes, i know these details. I do already know they come in multiple colors, and yes, i suppose i made a error there, i know all the other details aswell, i have heard both sexlinks and autosexing, sorry for the confusion, (and not to sound rude at all!) but why did you inform me on the hybrid parts? (Just curious) thank you for pointing it out, and sorry for calling it plymouth instead of barred

 

[NatJ]

i have heard both sexlinks and autosexing, sorry for the confusion, (and not to sound rude at all!) but why did you inform me on the hybrid parts?

I mentioned the sexlink hybrids because when someone uses "sexlink" instead of "autosexing" (or the other way around), I explain both terms to show how they aren't quite the same.

Some people have never heard of the difference, and some people already know and just use the wrong term by mistake, so I try to respond in a way that works for both.

 

[Chicken poppy]

I mentioned the sexlink hybrids because when someone uses "sexlink" instead of "autosexing" (or the other way around), I explain both terms to show how they aren't quite the same.

Some people have never heard of the difference, and some people already know and just use the wrong term by mistake, so I try to respond in a way that works for both.

I see, thank you for taking the time to tell me that.

 

[Huntmaster]

You’re not being confusing at all! The info is super helpful, especially the lock down period!
My dumb self would have been candling them until they hatched!

since I don’t know when exactly day 17 will be, I only dated 1 egg , 9/21, I’ll just stop candling on Oct 2nd. And as luck would have it, the one I dated is the one that I don’t think is viable…

all the eggs were laid when in 1-2 days on either side of the 9/21 egg…

Not sure if you are saying that eggs were just laid 1-2 days on either side of 9/21 , or if you put them under broody at all different dates? Its always best to put all eggs under broody at same time as not to have eggs hatching to far apart from each other that broody takes older chicks from nest and abandoning later eggs that have not hatched yet.

 

[Sassy-ChikN Mom]

Sooo… I felt bad for silkie momma because she wasn’t leaving her nest box, but wasn’t laying on anything. So I took the egg that I didn’t think was fertilized and put it under her a few days ago.
WELL…. It’s FERTILIZED AND DEVELOPING!!! I candled it last night, and saw an air bubble and veins! Maybe it was just a late bloomer??

maybe she got the memo on how to be a silkie momma after all! I left the other 4 under Big momma! So far so good!

 

[Weeg]

Sooo… I felt bad for silkie momma because she wasn’t leaving her nest box, but wasn’t laying on anything. So I took the egg that I didn’t think was fertilized and put it under her a few days ago.
WELL…. It’s FERTILIZED AND DEVELOPING!!! I candled it last night, and saw an air bubble and veins! Maybe it was just a late bloomer??

maybe she got the memo on how to be a silkie momma after all! I left the other 4 under Big momma! So far so good!

Yay! Congratulations! Silkies make excellent mothers, and go broody white often which is fun.
For both your mamma's, if possible try to find a way to separate them from the others. You can do this by using a pet, or baby gate, thats how I separate all of my broody's. Its best to do this because other hens will try to lay under her, or could damage the eggs while doing so. In most cases the broody occupy's the best nest box, and other hens will get irritated that she's not sharing.
As long as you leave them under momma, it doesn't matter which day lockdown is, she'll know and do her best for each individual egg.
I read on here before that broody's can sense whats going on in each egg, and adjust so that egg will thrive. Thats why shipped eggs often have a better survival rate under broody's thats in incubators. Congrats and keep us posted!

 

[Chicken poppy]

Sooo… I felt bad for silkie momma because she wasn’t leaving her nest box, but wasn’t laying on anything. So I took the egg that I didn’t think was fertilized and put it under her a few days ago.
WELL…. It’s FERTILIZED AND DEVELOPING!!! I candled it last night, and saw an air bubble and veins! Maybe it was just a late bloomer??

maybe she got the memo on how to be a silkie momma after all! I left the other 4 under Big momma! So far so good!

Yes! Never doubt an egg! Thats what ive learned. during the end looked like nothing, turned out to be my little bantom!

SO hapy everything is going well! I cant wait to see them hatch

 

[Sassy-ChikN Mom]

Yay! Congratulations! Silkies make excellent mothers, and go broody white often which is fun.
For both your mamma's, if possible try to find a way to separate them from the others. You can do this by using a pet, or baby gate, thats how I separate all of my broody's. Its best to do this because other hens will try to lay under her, or could damage the eggs while doing so. In most cases the broody occupy's the best nest box, and other hens will get irritated that she's not sharing.
As long as you leave them under momma, it doesn't matter which day lockdown is, she'll know and do her best for each individual egg.
I read on here before that broody's can sense whats going on in each egg, and adjust so that egg will thrive. Thats why shipped eggs often have a better survival rate under broody's thats in incubators. Congrats and keep us posted!

I had no idea to separate them, this is my first time with broody hens and fertilized eggs!

as luck would have it, they are in two separate coops. At night, Big Momma has 3 other hens that sleep in the coop she’s in total 4). Lil’ silkie momma is in a large coop with 11 others at night. Are they both okay to stay in their coops or should I move them? They seem to be doing okay but I want to be on the safe side.