the silkie slickers

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Good news, one of my silkie hens in broody! She has gone broody a couple times before but when I took her eggs away she gave up. But this time I am going to let her hatch! I've sort of got hatching fever right now:lau

I understand that she might give up partway through and all the other risks of a new broody, but I'm willing to give it a try! I have extra eggs, so what's holding me back?

So my question is how many eggs can she brood? All will be silkie eggs and she is about average size for a bantam silkie hen (actually she won't be a hen for another month but she has always been a extra large pullet).
 
SoftSilkie said:
Good news, one of my silkie hens in broody! She has gone broody a couple times before but when I took her eggs away she gave up. But this time I am going to let her hatch! I've sort of got hatching fever right now:lau

I understand that she might give up partway through and all the other risks of a new broody, but I'm willing to give it a try! I have extra eggs, so what's holding me back?

So my question is how many eggs can she brood? All will be silkie eggs and she is about average size for a bantam silkie hen (actually she won't be a hen for another month but she has always been a extra large pullet).
Click to expand...

It’s always worth a try! When using a broody things can go wrong regardless off how experienced they are, sometimes the hens that have sat multiple time’s still get off and desert their nest.

The main thing I find with new broodies is that they do go back to the nest but they either don’t cover all the eggs properly or they get out to go and eat for too long.

If she’s a USA bantam size then she should be able to sit 10 - 12 nicely. You may feel some poking out from the side of her but you’d be surprised that they still tend to hatch because they all get moved around anyways.

The much smaller British bantams can usually sit around 6 - 8 quite nicely 🙂
 
Last edited:
SoftSilkie said:
Good news, one of my silkie hens in broody! She has gone broody a couple times before but when I took her eggs away she gave up. But this time I am going to let her hatch! I've sort of got hatching fever right now:lau

I understand that she might give up partway through and all the other risks of a new broody, but I'm willing to give it a try! I have extra eggs, so what's holding me back?

So my question is how many eggs can she brood? All will be silkie eggs and she is about average size for a bantam silkie hen (actually she won't be a hen for another month but she has always been a extra large pullet).
Click to expand...
It all depends on how experienced the hen is. I usually start off newbies with 6 to 10 eggs. An experienced hen can handle up to 15 silkie eggs in my experience, but she has to know what she is doing because she needs to know how to rotate the eggs position so they all have time in the middle where it is the warmest.
 
I quite like this photo, one of my non bearded whites :celebrate

92D9C8B7-F2E3-4403-84CA-B5069E075041.jpeg
 

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