Setting Silkies

[Chic Chick]

How many eggs can a silkie hen cover successfully? Both silkie eggs and standard size. How many can a standard size hen cover ?
Another question is how many different colors can the silkie eggs be? I have the standard cream color but I also have one laying a pinkish egg - this is coming from a red silkie so could it be crossed with something else?

 

[MuranoFarms]

I have no idea, but I'm curious about the answer! Never heard of a pink silkie egg.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I generally give my silkies 8 standard eggs. Usually about half of them hatch, but that is likely more a fertility problem than a hatching problem. I have never set only banty eggs so I'm not exactly sure how many the hen can cover. I'd guess you could try 10 and see what happens.

My darn standard hens refuse to go broody, so I don't have an answer for that one either.

 

[Chic Chick]

I put 12 silkie eggs under her and put her in a separate cage so she won't be bothered. This summer I had an ameraucana pullet go broody at 7 months old. She sat on 18 eggs but the other hens were adding to her clutch when I finally found her and the nest. I marked the ones in there and removed the new ones but she only hatched out 8. The rest I threw away because she wouldn't leave the nest, and I really didn't want chicks going into the fall here. Now I might be kicking myself to be hatching in the middle of winter

Thanks for the advice about the amount of standard eggs citygirl. I have my maran roo in with the hens now so I will have fertile eggs whenever another 1 goes broody