Should I adopt these baby Silkies?

[4 Georgia Hens]

Hi all!
So, I have been offered some silkie chicks. They're 1-2 days old. I was wondering the likeliness of my 2 fully-grown silkies adopting and raising the babies? I would get 2 chicks. The big girls have never been broody longer than 1 night. What do y'all think? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Squeak61]

I personally have never tried to brood chicks with broody hens. However, I do know that one of your chickens would have to stay broody in order to accept the chicks, and there’s always the chance that she just won’t. I would recommend raising them in a brooder. But that’s just me, hopefully someone with more broody hen experience will offer their opinion

 

[Bridger Davis]

YES! GET THE BABIES! I would stick to an artificial brooder with the proper heating and setup instead of hoping the adult birds would care for them. Just my thought..

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Ok. Thanks

 

[ChuskaMtns]

Are either of your hens broody now? If not, then they won't accept the chicks. Even if they are broody doesn't guarantee that they'd accept the chicks.
I still say go for it! I'm a big advocate for chicken math

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Are either of your hens broody now? If not, then they won't accept the chicks. Even if they are broody doesn't guarantee that they'd accept the chicks.
I still say go for it! I'm a big advocate for chicken math

No. They're not broody. Lol!

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

I found some easy tips to help encourage a chicken to get broody. I might try some of them. It would be AMAZING to not have to worry about heat lamps and all the other supplies needed!

 

[ChuskaMtns]

I found some easy tips to help encourage a chicken to get broody. I might try some of them. It would be AMAZING to not have to worry about heat lamps and all the other supplies needed!

It's the main reason why I keep Silkies! I do have one hen that stays broody. She'll raise her chicks then immediately go broody again. She spends half her time in the broody breaker, which is where she currently resides.

 

[anatess]

I've done this several times. I started with 4 silkies. They all grew up. I wanted more so I bought more day-old babies and raised them myself (it's more expensive to get the older ones). They all grew up and I wanted more so I did it again. I have 12 chickens now.

But, I tried putting the babies in the coop when my silkies were sitting on eggs the first time. That didn't work out too well. I don't know what happened - the babies might have gotten smothered or something, but one died so I took the rest out and put them in an empty aquarium and put a heat lamp in there. I put them back in the coop when they were about 6 weeks old and they had no issues running around with the bigger hens.

 

[sourland]

Non broody hens will not accept chicks, and chicks more than a couple of days old will not imprint on hens. In my experience in order for a hen to foster chicks she would have to have been setting a minimum of 2 weeks. The closer to 21 days the greater the chance of success.