Silkie thread!

So I put all 7 large fowl eggs under Ashes. She is at my inlaws being an incubator for them. The eggs were incubated for the first week and a half, and then we gave her 4 of them, since there were only 3 left in the incubator, we wanted to give them to her. Pointless to use an incubator for 3 eggs with a perfectly good broody. lol. They are fitting under her well, but when they begin to hatch, I'm concerned they won't have enough room to hatch. Am I being silly?
 
So I put all 7 large fowl eggs under Ashes. She is at my inlaws being an incubator for them. The eggs were incubated for the first week and a half, and then we gave her 4 of them, since there were only 3 left in the incubator, we wanted to give them to her. Pointless to use an incubator for 3 eggs with a perfectly good broody. lol. They are fitting under her well, but when they begin to hatch, I'm concerned they won't have enough room to hatch. Am I being silly?

Don't worry, momma hens are very clever when it comes to being a momma.
 
I have a 5 month old silkie cockerel that seems to be having problems with balance. He is eating, drinking, pooping all normal. He has yet to crow and his brother has been crowing for a month now. If it wasn't for the streamers I would swear he was a she. His crest was extremely full and I gave him a hair cut so he could see better. He does shake his head often and he is either preening or itching. I will be giving him a dusting tonight for mites just in case thats what he's doing instead of preening. He has no symptoms of any sickness other than the bad balance. Does anybody have any ideas what could be the problem?

He does take a few steps before he starts rocking back and forth loosing his balance. He has been inside in my living room in a cage for a week now with no improvement. I started him on antibiotics in case he had something that might require it but it don't seem like thats the issue. I will be taking him to the vet soon if I can't figure out what the problem is if I can fix it myself.

Oh, None of the other silkie juveniles that are in the pen that he was in are having any of these issues. I did get a bad bag of wood shavings that had mites in it. I took care of that problem but was wondering if maybe mites could be in his ears or maybe has him anemic which might make him weak and seem like he's having balance problems. Just a thought of mine.

Another thing, when he "preens" it's his back and under his wings that he appears to be preening. I didn't see any lice or mites but the ones that came from that bag of wood shavings where very small. I had to treat all my birds and redo all the pens and I treated the pens also. Not what I usually have to do in the middle of the worst part of winter. That's usually something that seems to happen in the summer, here anyway.
 
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I have a 5 month old silkie cockerel that seems to be having problems with balance. He is eating, drinking, pooping all normal. He has yet to crow and his brother has been crowing for a month now. If it wasn't for the streamers I would swear he was a she.  His crest was extremely full and I gave him a hair cut so he could see better. He does shake his head often and he is either preening or itching. I will be giving him a dusting tonight for mites just in case thats what he's doing instead of preening.  He has no symptoms of any sickness other than the bad balance. Does anybody have any ideas what could be the problem?

He does take a few steps before he starts rocking back and forth loosing his balance. He has been inside in my living room in a cage for a week now with no improvement. I started him on antibiotics in case he had something that might require it but it don't seem like thats the issue.  I will be taking him to the vet soon if I can't figure out what the problem is if I can fix it myself.

Oh, None of the other silkie juveniles that are in the pen that he was in are having any of these issues. I did get a bad bag of wood shavings that had mites in it. I took care of that problem but was wondering if maybe mites could be in his ears or maybe has him anemic which might make him weak and seem like he's having balance problems. Just a thought of mine.

Another thing, when he "preens" it's his back and under his wings that he appears to be preening.  I didn't see any lice or mites but the ones that came from that bag of wood shavings where very small. I had to treat all my birds and redo all the pens and I treated the pens also. Not what I usually have to do in the middle of the worst part of winter. That's usually something that seems to happen in the summer, here anyway.

Have you posted this before? It's okay if you haven't, I just looked at it and had like a dejavu moment. Lol! Have you had him tested for mareks? I think birds start to develop symptoms like that I do believe.
 
Have you posted this before? It's okay if you haven't, I just looked at it and had like a dejavu moment. Lol! Have you had him tested for mareks? I think birds start to develop symptoms like that I do believe.
The only way to test him for Mareks is for him to be dead. It's not that I"m sure. I did post a problem with one of his siblings back a couple months ago but I had her tested and it turned out to be phnemonia. Strange symptoms for that I thought but thats what it turned out to be. There was him and another boy in the pen and one of the pullets was laying so I suspect maybe a head injury. We all know how the boys get when the girls are old enough to breed. He is alert, eyes bright and the right color, no tremors and no tumors that I can feel on the outside. He has no problem with eating or doing any of the things they do the most it's just his balance. He has made it over to me and is cooing at me right now. He's been out of his cage for a few hours now and he has eaten quite a bit along with some meal worms and drank water and pooped a few times.

I just wonder if mites in the ears or if they even get ear infections. It's usually something to do with the ears or brain when balance is the issue from my experiences so far anyway. If he was too weak to walk that would make him have bad balance but that does'nt seem to be the case. What vitamin would a chicken be deficiant of to make them this way. maybe it's that. It just seems like it's something I can fix.
 
I have a 5 month old silkie cockerel that seems to be having problems with balance. He is eating, drinking, pooping all normal. He has yet to crow and his brother has been crowing for a month now. If it wasn't for the streamers I would swear he was a she.  His crest was extremely full and I gave him a hair cut so he could see better. He does shake his head often and he is either preening or itching. I will be giving him a dusting tonight for mites just in case thats what he's doing instead of preening.  He has no symptoms of any sickness other than the bad balance. Does anybody have any ideas what could be the problem?

He does take a few steps before he starts rocking back and forth loosing his balance. He has been inside in my living room in a cage for a week now with no improvement. I started him on antibiotics in case he had something that might require it but it don't seem like thats the issue.  I will be taking him to the vet soon if I can't figure out what the problem is if I can fix it myself.

Oh, None of the other silkie juveniles that are in the pen that he was in are having any of these issues. I did get a bad bag of wood shavings that had mites in it. I took care of that problem but was wondering if maybe mites could be in his ears or maybe has him anemic which might make him weak and seem like he's having balance problems. Just a thought of mine.

Another thing, when he "preens" it's his back and under his wings that he appears to be preening.  I didn't see any lice or mites but the ones that came from that bag of wood shavings where very small. I had to treat all my birds and redo all the pens and I treated the pens also. Not what I usually have to do in the middle of the worst part of winter. That's usually something that seems to happen in the summer, here anyway.

Could be a form of wry neck. I'd start him on a multi vitamin just to be safe.
 

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