FortCluck
Hatch-a-Long Queen
I have never wormed my flock because I have never needed to. I'm very iffy about giving my birds chemicals just because of the affects it can have on them. I'm someone who if my animals show no signs of illness then I do not treat for an illness.Out of the 11 silkie eggs I have that are due today six babies hatched so far. Three are not ready yet but are doing good, hopefully they'll be out today or tomorrow and 2 quit on day 20. The two who didn't make it didn't get into hatching position so they still had their head between their thighs. One I could tell was already dead this morning and I tried saving the other one but it was too late, it had already absorbed most of the blood vessels and hadn't started breathing yet so even though I got its head free it didn't switch over to using its lungs before the blood vessels finished absorbing.
I wish I knew what was causing the malpositions, it could definitely be storage, I had to store them in a warm room unless I wanted to refrigerate them (maybe that would have been a better option). I had better luck from another breeding pen earlier in the year so I can't rule out my rooster either. I'm hoping nutrition is alright, they get a 20% protein crumble, free choice oyster shell and I give them poultry vitamins in their water at least a couple times a month. I hadn't wormed them yet when I was collecting these eggs but I wormed for the first time about a week ago and will do a follow up in a few days (not sure if they needed it but I've heard good things about doing a couple routine wormings a year).
Here are the babies so far.
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My current silkie boy took over a month to fertilize anything (I can't quite remember how long it took it might have been a couple months). It's been over 2 months now and after the latest batch of eggs I set I know he's still not getting everything fertilized yet. My hens didn't seem to be very receptive to him after he made some clumsy attempts at mating in the beginning. I've had other roosters pick it up a lot faster as well, I guess some are just slow.
I hope your new boy is just a bit of a slowpoke and not infertile.
I do know people who worm a couple times a year and their flocks do fine.
I just go by what I have learned from generations in my family. We all do our own things and that's what makes byc so unique. I love learning what others do with their flock because there's always something new to learn.
I'm so glad your hubby was home to rescue the babies!!
most of the chicks I got from my eggs are grey/silver or blue so who knows 
