silkie hatch

[rosco]

i'll bet this is the only one to hatch as the eggs were turned until day 20.5, but who knows. remind me, i give it scrambled egg with chick mash mixed in? i've not found marbles to put in a water bowl yet.

 

[humm-n-cluck ranch]

awe how cute!! sorry no advise still too new myself

 

[rosco]

kewl. the chick is looking, Stately, i guess. very sharp looking bird.

how long is it before it will start drinking water?

 

[rosco]

bump

 

[raimnel]

mine newly hatched were drinking water within a day, they found my cup with a washcloth in it that I am using for humidity. Very cute! I'm setting 10 silkie eggs BTweekend.

 

[chkinut]

out of 12 showgirl/silkie eggs only 3 hatched for me. and i was diligent about the humidity and temps and i had an automatic egg turner! they WERE shipped eggs though. anyway, the chick are so tiny! i have 2 silkies (one of which is super small, and one showgirl).







the showgirl is on the right in the last pic.....so it's the same chick in the 1st pic except with his neck tucked in. anyway. i've been feeding them this baby bird food that i bought at petsmart from a company called KAYTEE and the food is called Exact. but don't follow the directions on the containter, cuz it says to mix it with a bunch of water.....well, you don't need to do that with baby chickens cuz they don't eat like birds that need to be fed from their mothers. it comes in a powder, so i just sprinkle the powder on the floor of their brooder (which is covered with paper towels) and they eat it right up! my 3 chicks are now 5 days old and they've been eating this since about 30 hours after they hatched. i tried to feed them regular chick crumble yesterday, but they still couldn't eat it (it's just too big for them). BUT, you could use the chick starter if you mix water in it to soften it up so they can actually eat it. but they've been thriving on the Exact food.

 

[rosco]

still only one chick at day 21. we had some friends turn the eggs from day ~12-20 and they didn't know to stop turning eggs at day 18. they were turned once on day 20. it was our fault for not letting them know this was to happen.

what are chances more hatch? i'm not too hopeful and feel we are lucky to have one hatch

 

[chkinut]

i've heard that silkie eggs are hard to hatch. of course i've only had one experience with that, and like i said, it was 3 eggs outta 12 that hatched. but i've heard on BYC that silkies are hard to hatch. i've got another bunch of silkie eggs coming in a couple days (14) and i wonder how they'll do?

 

[rosco]

wow! three out of twelve. hmmm. 25%.

what are chances of hatch if eggs were good up till day 18 but they were turned until day 20?

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Don't lose hope yet. It probably didn't hurt them too much to turn once a day. I'm sure the eggs move about underneath a hen on day 20. My last broody hatch...the hen was out dust bathing on day 20 for about 5 minutes. Chicks hatched just fine!!