Silkie egg help??!!

[jaretc]

So we have always had one silkie, an obvious hen who layed at least 2 eggs a week. Recently, we got a second splash silkie who we don't really know if he/she layed any eggs. Well this week there has only been 1 egg in their coop and the for sure hen has been incubating it the whole time. This is the only time she has ever been broody. I candled the egg and it came out an orange-ish yellow color with a prominent air sack. Could I have a baby chicken or does every hen go through a broody stage?

The newer chicken looks just as any silkie? Full body of feathers with a large beard and head covering as well as a huge bunch of tail feathers

 

[sourland]

If you have a rooster, the egg might be fertile. Hens go broody whether or not there is a rooster present.

 

[jaretc]

That's the thing, I'm not exactly sure this is a rooster.... And if not, what would have possessed her to incubate this egg specifically???

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

If your egg were fertile, and your hen has been sitting on it for a week, you should see some veins inside it by now. I can't tell for sure if the Silkie in the picture is a boy or a girl, since the picture is kind of blurry, but it looks like a pullet to me. If your Silkie has a large comb, streamers (longer feathers coming off the back of the crest) and the obvious spurs and crowing, its a boy. If you don't have any other roosters besides the Silkie in question, I would guess that its probably not fertile. You could candle the egg again to be sure, if you don't see anything other than a yellowish inside (veins, black moving blob) its not fertile.

And, hens will go broody whether you've got a rooster or not. Hormones tell them to do it, sometimes my hens will sit on rocks, golf balls or nothing when they really want chicks. I like to hatch eggs, so I always give them some