silkie questions........

[emjay]

Okay. I have been suckered in. I am getting some silkies soon. SO, just a few more questions.

when they go broody, how many standard eggs can you set under a silkie?
are silkies calm enough that you can keep mama and new babes in the flock?
what is the going price for a dozen fertilized silkie eggs?
what is the most IN DEMAND color (curious) ??
seeing as they are bad flyers, not big into roosts, should nestboxes be on the floor?

anything else you can add that's good to know, thanks !!!!!

Just got second coop, need to build the run, then good to go, yay.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I can answer some of your questions.
They can not fly at alll..
It depends of the size of your silkies, some are really small, and some are a little bigger. On the bigger ones you might be able to fit around 5 or so standard eggs. And maybe around 6 to 8 bantam eggs depending on the size of the bantam eggs.
They can roost just like other chickens.
Nesting boxes should probably be on the ground.
I don't know what the most popular breed is, maybe white?
I would probably keep the mammas and babies in a different place, where the other chickens couldn't get to them.
I sale my bantam eggs for $2.00 a dozen. All my eggs are fertilized. Hope this helps!

 

[emjay]

thanks for your reply.
do you sell your bantam eggs as edibles or hatchables?

I plan on keeping the silkies seperate from the other birds, just silkies with themselves, you would still suggest seperating families?

 

[Ariel301]

Yes, it is still a good idea to separate a broody hen and her family. Otherwise you may have other hens laying eggs in her nest well after she has started incubating the ones she has--so you could end up with half-developed dead eggs when the first ones hatch and she gets off the nest; or she may have issues with other hens trying to steal or eat her babies. It's less stressful if she has some privacy.

 

[robin416]

I rarely remove a broody from her pen and pen mates. I mark the eggs she begins on and remove those that are not marked.

There has never been a problem from pen mates or Momma when it comes to the peeps. More often than not my girls co parents with some of the daddys joining in. I currently have two girls with peeps, their roo and a half grown sib all in the same pen.

The hot color right now is lavender. The one that I prefer is white after having all of the colors out there.

Egg prices are dependent on the quality of the breeders birds. It is not unheard of for eggs to go up to $100 from a known breeder. Average price is about $25.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
I sale my eggs for both. But I mostly sale eggs for food.

But, once I gave my friend abunch of hatching eggs. But she was trying to hatch them out in winter and they didn't make it. Yes, I would still suggest seperating the broodies from the rest of the flock. What color of silkies are you getting?

 

[kezabel]

Quote:
I've just had 2 broodies hatch 2 lots of silkie eggs in the last 3 months and I left them in the coop with the other girls and they seemed fine , both mother hens looked/ and are looking after thier chicks really well.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

One of the dangers in keeping eggs/chicks in with the flock is having two broodies trying to mother them. Sounds nice, right? Not when you end up with squashed chick!