StepfordCuckoos
Songster
- Mar 20, 2019
- 234
- 258
- 146
We perhaps have made a mistake!! So my black silkie, Inky, is our best mama. She's raised countless chicks (she raised her first set of chicks at under a month old [ i think ] when we were in an emergency pinch and put day old chicks in with her and another silkie. she immediately sat on them and kept them warm and everything. i've never seen anything like it) and is the sweetest chicken ever. Well over the summer she decided she wanted babies (after literally just having finished raising 7 chicks). We let her sit on two of her eggs and they were very close to hatching when a snake ate them 
. We ordered eggs and got an incubator and hatched three chicks. Two went under her and one went under other silkie who had gone broody.
Well she just finished raising those two chicks (who still like to snuggle with her at night), and has gone broody once again. There were a bunch of roosters in her coop and they weren't aggressive with us but they did jump on our little silkies, and they were just too big for the silkies so we moved them to a bachelor flock. We were left with one rooster in my coop. He kept in there at the time because he was too small and young to go with the boys. Once he matured and started jumping on the silkies we moved him. At this time my silkie had gone broody and was on the nest. I took away all the big eggs and there were two silkie eggs left. One of the eggs disappeared (not a snake, I don't think. I think it just got lost in the coop somewhere) and so she was down to one. I figured this one wasn't developing (because I would check and it wasn't), so I would let her sit on it for a little bit while I figured out how to try and stop her being broody.
We are fine with her hatching eggs, but were worried about the possibility of her hatching them at this time of year. We live in MD, and it is quite cold at the moment ( & will only get colder the longer she sits on the eggs ). Our concerns were that any chicks hatched would freeze to death because of the temperatures. By chance I went outside today and decided to check under her. To my surprise there wasn't just one silkie egg but about 4 of them. Even more surprising was the fact that they are somehow developing. I really don't know how that could be. The only possibility is that last rooster but I still am a bit confused because he has been moved since those eggs were laid.
Since they are developing, we're letting her sit on them. We're worried about the temperature dipping too low. Any tips on how to keep the coop nice and warm. Their coop is very nice (picture of their coop here) and is always locked up tight at night. Still, I worry it will be too cold during the day with the front door open.
Another question- these chicks will be 50 percent silkie (hen), 25% black Andalusian/25% olive egger [ the father is half black Andalusian and half olive egger ]. Our silkies are very, very small. Do you think the chicks would lean towards the smaller size? The black Andalusian the roo is fathered by is not a large bird, and neither is the olive egger hen. Also, what kind of coloring might we expect? The eggs being sat on likely came from our splash silkie, though it's also possible they are from our black (not dark but not quite blue) silkie.
. We ordered eggs and got an incubator and hatched three chicks. Two went under her and one went under other silkie who had gone broody. Well she just finished raising those two chicks (who still like to snuggle with her at night), and has gone broody once again. There were a bunch of roosters in her coop and they weren't aggressive with us but they did jump on our little silkies, and they were just too big for the silkies so we moved them to a bachelor flock. We were left with one rooster in my coop. He kept in there at the time because he was too small and young to go with the boys. Once he matured and started jumping on the silkies we moved him. At this time my silkie had gone broody and was on the nest. I took away all the big eggs and there were two silkie eggs left. One of the eggs disappeared (not a snake, I don't think. I think it just got lost in the coop somewhere) and so she was down to one. I figured this one wasn't developing (because I would check and it wasn't), so I would let her sit on it for a little bit while I figured out how to try and stop her being broody.
We are fine with her hatching eggs, but were worried about the possibility of her hatching them at this time of year. We live in MD, and it is quite cold at the moment ( & will only get colder the longer she sits on the eggs ). Our concerns were that any chicks hatched would freeze to death because of the temperatures. By chance I went outside today and decided to check under her. To my surprise there wasn't just one silkie egg but about 4 of them. Even more surprising was the fact that they are somehow developing. I really don't know how that could be. The only possibility is that last rooster but I still am a bit confused because he has been moved since those eggs were laid.
Since they are developing, we're letting her sit on them. We're worried about the temperature dipping too low. Any tips on how to keep the coop nice and warm. Their coop is very nice (picture of their coop here) and is always locked up tight at night. Still, I worry it will be too cold during the day with the front door open.
Another question- these chicks will be 50 percent silkie (hen), 25% black Andalusian/25% olive egger [ the father is half black Andalusian and half olive egger ]. Our silkies are very, very small. Do you think the chicks would lean towards the smaller size? The black Andalusian the roo is fathered by is not a large bird, and neither is the olive egger hen. Also, what kind of coloring might we expect? The eggs being sat on likely came from our splash silkie, though it's also possible they are from our black (not dark but not quite blue) silkie.
