Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Oisian]

I only have one silkie and he's a roo. He lives in with my regular chooks because their roo died and he's too big to live with my Seramas. His name is PomPom and He's converted me to silkies. I'm actually now looking to breed silkied Serama to combine my obsessions.

 

[Hinotori]

Hey all you hatchers, I have a question. So I just did a silkie dry hatch and it didn't go as what I thought. So I kept the humidity for days 1-18 around 25-30%. Then on lockdown I raised the humidity to 60-65 percent which should end up with a good hatch? I originally set 15 eggs, when I candled on day 9 I removed 2 leaving me with 13 eggs. It's day 22 and only four have hatched. Based on the eggs that were hatched the humidity was too low. I think I'm going to get a hygrometer for my next hatch. Do ya'll keep yours in the incubator? I will gladly take any advice on dry hatching to make my rates better. Thanks!

I think the chicks drowned because of the increase in humidity. I don't dry hatch but I keep my humidity set at 45% for the entire time. My normal hatch rate 90%+. I open the vent when they start hatching to keep that humidity down.

I used to raise it up when I first started using an incubator, but hatch rates were around 60% and I was unhappy so decided to ignore that advice and see what happened. It improved greatly so I keep it even. It's not like hens get wet like ducks do.

My silkie hens move around enough that I know they don't have increased humidity. I do on the rare occasion have a shrink wrapped chick with them.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Decisions decision.. I've ruled out the dark gray baby, and the white with a few blue splashes.. I really like the two light gray babies.. I hope I hope they are pullets.. Just 7 weeks old now.. and all but one were in the nest with mom last night helping keep her and the eggs warm that she's sitting on.View attachment 3217132These two..View attachment 3217136
Please be pullets!
The dark gray baby..View attachment 3217138
Mom is on day 17 of the nest hatch with 7 eggs under her, and 1 egg in the incubator from that batch that was just outside the nest, but doing well.

They look like make-up puffs; soooo cute!

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I only have one silkie and he's a roo. He lives in with my regular chooks because their roo died and he's too big to live with my Seramas. His name is PomPom and He's converted me to silkies. I'm actually now looking to breed silkied Serama to combine my obsessions.

WOW, you go 'head. I hope you build a dedicated thread to tell us all about it!

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

I think the chicks drowned because of the increase in humidity. I don't dry hatch but I keep my humidity set at 45% for the entire time. My normal hatch rate 90%+. I open the vent when they start hatching to keep that humidity down.

I used to raise it up when I first started using an incubator, but hatch rates were around 60% and I was unhappy so decided to ignore that advice and see what happened. It improved greatly so I keep it even. It's not like hens get wet like ducks do.

My silkie hens move around enough that I know they don't have increased humidity. I do on the rare occasion have a shrink wrapped chick with them.

Thanks! I found someone else who had the same humidity levels and I think I'll try that on my next hatch. Did you have to add water to keep it around 45%?

 

[Hinotori]

Thanks! I found someone else who had the same humidity levels and I think I'll try that on my next hatch. Did you have to add water to keep it around 45%?

I have a Brinsea with humidity pump. It rarely comes on with house humidity what it is unless I run it in winter. I have a cheap little hydrometer and thermometer I stick in there as well as the bators own built in features.

I had 16 broody silkies last month so used them instead. Only put the stragglers in the incubator to finish up.

 

[Hinotori]

I want to point out I didn't put a link to Brinsea in that post. I'm assuming it does it automatically? Just found that weird.

Eta. Didnt do it on this one

Eta again. It did do it when I came back later

 

[pennyJo1960]

There is links to donors or not sure advertisers I think is correct.

 

[Hinotori]

15-16 weeks old

These two are siblings. Silkied is male. Both are 3rd gen in my blue egg project. You can see the pullet does not have correct partridge coloring. They do look pretty silkie, especially the cockerel. He's still too orange.

These are full silkie. Blue partridge cockerel. He too has a lot of extra orange but I'd thought I'd lost the color in my flock.

I thought this boy was regular partridge, but he looks rather blue now. Was darker as a chick.

I'm hoping when this boy gets in his adult feathers that they come in bright. He's got a nice base for it to work with.

 

[chickengr]

@kurby22 sorry for your loss. as someone on byc said: that's chicken's life. one day they run, the next day they are dead. happened to me many times.