using silkies

[bandbaustin]

I just picked up some silkie hens to help incubate my pheasant and peafowl eggs. How many eggs can I put under each hen?

 

[JJMR794]

None

 

[JJMR794]

Sell the hens and go buy a brinsea--- it wont give your pheasants a deadly illness.

 

[Tony K T]

Quote:
Please clarify here.I have my own thoughts,but would like to hear yours.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
Please clarify here.I have my own thoughts,but would like to hear yours.
In N.H.,Tony.

Early in my start I lost an entire brooder full of fancies... Elliots, reeves, silvers, etc.... 54 in all. All because i had a 1/2 grown serama hen in there that was the best lil brooder nanny! Unbeknownst to me.... she was a "typhoid Mary!" 12 hrs from the the 1st silver showing signs of illness to the last bird in the brooder (except the nanny of course). Coryza or mycoplasma wiped out the whole lot! Despite quick treatment which is a specialty thing-- hard to get drugs unless you are prepared in advance, and even if you do save the animal it may well be a carrier of these illnesses for life and will thereby infect any others of its kind. Chickens carry (while never showing or succumbing to... ) Avian illnesses that will run through gamebirds (who do not have the natural immunity to these like chickens do) like wildfire!

I earned my education on this the old fashioned way. I try to help prevent folks from making my mistakes, hopefully someone else can learn an easier way than i did... Mixing chickens and gamebirds is BAD MOJO.


But then again Tony.... you already knew this

 

[DMFarm]

JJMR794 I kind of agree with you but this is where testing for Coryza or mycoplasma to make sure they are not carriers. I have use silkies for years to set eggs but I don't let them hatch them I finish them in a incubator because I don't have enought hens. I know a breeder that don't own a incubator and all the eggs are set under brood hens and are hatch and raised and never had any problems and he raises several hundred ever year. That why it pay to have your flock tested for these diseases.

 

[Rachelj07]

I got my Red Golden from a place that use broody chickens (mostly silkies) to set and hatch out the eggs. Never had a problem. They also all had seperate indoor coops in the same barn.

 

[schoebel_taylor]

Ive used silkies to incubate other eggs for years without problems. Maybe I just got lucky though.

 

[Tony K T]

I have np problems letting bantams hatch the eggs,but I would not let them brood them.Pheasant chicks have a tendency to take off and bantams don't keep them at bay.Needless to say you usually end up losing the chicks.
in N.H.,Tony.