Putting new chicks under silkie?

[Cargbrock]

I hatched 2 polishxsilkie chicks this morning and was wondering if I can bring in a silkie hen to mother them? Will she take them or is this dangerous to the chicks?

We have a partridge rock that will sit on eggs for about an hour or two, but then seems to get bored.... would this be a better choice?

Any input and advice is welcomed. The chickens we have now were raised from a few days old.... hatching is something that we have never done before.

It is no problem to raise them ourselves, but thought they might benefit with a momma.

 

[mstricer]

NO I would not do that unless they had been on eggs for a cycle of hatching, you risk them being killed. You should just continue raising them. I put my 3 week old chick in the coop, in a dog crate so they could get used to the chickens, I left them in it locked up with a light and food and water, a week later I let them out in the coop where they stayed and went to sleep in their coop. On Monday this week we had great weather and I opened coop door and they were amazed at the world, now they are going in and out with our big girls and no one hurts any body.

 

[TrystInn]

Since its a Silkie, I'd say give it a shot. Our Silkies have raised ducklings, so I don't think you'll have any trouble having them adopt two chicks.

Keep a good eye on things for awhile, if she's sitting happily on them and singing to herself, you're likely just fine.

 

[mstricer]

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Silkies are good broodies, but I don't think you can just take a hen and give her chicks if she is not broody. You could be setting your self up. Would you just take chicks out to your coop of Silkies and everything be okay, I don't think so.

 

[TrystInn]

Our motto around here is "have a problem? Stick a Silkie on it"

We've done this several times without incident: chicks we purchased at a show, ducklings whose mothers weren't good raisers, chicks from another friend's farm and even hatchery chicks.

We've never had a problem - the Silkie just walks over to them, checks them out, then begins mamma'ing them.

Wendy, with Prima her foster-duckling:

Wendy, a few weeks after adopting Prima, her duckling:

 

[Cargbrock]

I brought one of my silkie hens inside and put her in a crate... I let her sit in there for a bit to get used to it and then I took my two day old chicks out of the brooder and put them in there with her... They didn't want to have anything to do with her at first, so I turned of the lights, hoping that they would go to her for warmth... They did. Both crawled right up under her... The hen is just sitting there... If she's letting them crawl under her, does this mean she's accepting them? Or should she be doing something else? She stuck her head under her (she didn't peck at anything) and I don't know if she was adjusting them, or looking at them, or what. She doesn't seem to have a problem with them being under her.

 

[curious1969]

I have a silkie hen who has laid about 3 eggs in her life and never been broody (she is four years old and has an extreme scissor beak). I have given her incubator babies on five different occasions and she has taken them and raised them without any fuss. I say give it a try

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Silkies are good broodies, but I don't think you can just take a hen and give her chicks if she is not broody. You could be setting your self up. Would you just take chicks out to your coop of Silkies and everything be okay, I don't think so.

 

[TrystInn]

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Yep, sounds like you are good to go. Mammas like to check on the babies from time to time and adjustments will be made.

 

[WhiteCochinLover]

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If dy has other chicks under her then it would be fine but if she just has eggs then no she could kill them