Utah!

[Iluvmysilkies]

That's a hard choice. In my experience with my Silkies they usually only have a 50% or less hatch rate on their first clutch of 100 % fertile eggs. I would just keep doing what you are doing and don't change your plans due to the fertility of the eggs. You could always hive her the new chicks right as they hatch and start with a new bunch of eggs in your incubator.

I just snook in the coop while they were sleeping and gently moved her long enough to dump a ton of fresh bedding on her nest to make it deeper/cleaner and put the eggs back and her on top of them. They are all still warm and I checked the one fertile egg I gave her and its still doing well. Should I leave it with her or take it back and put it in with the remaining 3 eggs that are developing? I doubt she'd even notice. You said your silkies only hatched 50% on their first time hatching? That makes me nervous. Although how many were they sitting on? I was thinking of leaving her with just this one or giving her all 4 developing eggs and take away the 2 infertile ones. I want to trust her since nature is suppose to be better then any incubator, i just dont know how reliable she is since this is her first time, but so far she seems like she's doing her job because that egg is still alive. If I give her these 4 then I could set more eggs instead of waiting but I only want to do whatever is going to give these 4 the best chance at hatching. Not sure what I should do.

 

[the-bird-man]

Hey Brad. No deer. Only got one chance and my cap didn't fire (muzzle loader hunt). I guess that's the chance you take with one shot rifles.I hunted the north end of skyline drive above Scofield Reservoir. The area is called Bear Ridge, Pondtown, Fishcreek Ridge. Went out to check eggs tonight and found the same 3 girls in the nesting boxes just like the last few nights. My son said they have been in there during the middle of the day so i guess i now have 3 broody hens. I knew my little B-EE was broody but had no idea the other 2 were. Its a little disappointing since one of them is A Wellsummer that has only been laying for about a month. The other is one of my last years OE's. I think i will watch the 2 LF until Saturday before moving them to a separate coop. I should have a dozen plus Silkie and Sizzle eggs the put under the OE by then. I all ready have a good idea what to give the Welly but not sure what to give my little Momo. So it looks like i will be hatching out 30 plus eggs in a couple weeks. Am i crazy? No just Mad! Had to share a pict of my Welly's eggs and my new layer, A F2 OE i hatched in February from Sphinx. I hatched 10 eggs and only keep 2 chicks one was a roo and one was a pullet. Had to re home the roo because my Silkie rooster was pulling all of his feathers out of him, only a matter of time before i would find him dead.

sorry you did not get a deer muzzle loaders are for sure a lot more challenging, not sure i could hunt with one. that is beautiful up there. thanks for the pics. i always like to hear how peoples hunts go. so thanks for sharing

 

[themadchicken]

Iluv, that is a tuff one but don't stress. No matter what you decide you will get a couple to hatch. One way to help the Silkie if you go with her is to move her to a controlled environment. I use my brooder for this during the winter if it gets to cold outside. keep the temp around 80-85 degrees 24/7 and she only has an area of 5 square feet to move. I keep her in the house and in the room were my kids play and hang out. Because chickens are flock animals this gives her the sense she is still in a flock but has no other chickens around to interrupt her natural instinct.But beware the BROODY POOP! WOW! THIS WILL CLEAR YOUR HOUSE! Good Luck! If you want some practice eggs let me know.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Iluv, that is a tuff one but don't stress. No matter what you decide you will get a couple to hatch. One way to help the Silkie if you go with her is to move her to a controlled environment. I use my brooder for this during the winter if it gets to cold outside. keep the temp around 80-85 degrees 24/7 and she only has an area of 5 square feet to move. I keep her in the house and in the room were my kids play and hang out. Because chickens are flock animals this gives her the sense she is still in a flock but has no other chickens around to interrupt her natural instinct.But beware the BROODY POOP! WOW! THIS WILL CLEAR YOUR HOUSE! Good Luck! If you want some practice eggs let me know.

Thanks for the tip. I have thought about bringing her into the house but I researched alot of stories about it stressing the hens out too much and that they dont want to nest anywhere accept where they are comfortable and thats usually wherever they started in the first place. She's in her coop now but it does get cold at night which im worried about but then again she stayed glued to that nest. I have only seen her get off once and it was around noon and she was out stretching her legs, probably eating/drinking, and then went right back to the nest. I figured thats normal and she probably wasent off too long. I dont know if the weather is cold enough to be a concern. I would love to bring her inside where its warmer but im not sure that would risk stressing her out and making her not interested in the eggs if I tried to move her. I do have the shed where I keep the chicks in a huge pen and theres a lamp out there. I didnt think of that, im sure it would work fine but again, i dont know if it would stress her out too much or not, and make her forget about the eggs. ? And she'd be alone out there. I wish I had hubby wire the coop already for electricity, then I could just put a lamp in there where she's at but i'd planned on just keeping them all in the shed during the winter since its the best protection, so the small coop outside doesent have a lamp. I hate feelign confused and not knowing what to do. Its a new experience so im not sure which route to go.

 

[Cynthia12]

Iluv, don't chuck any eggs until day 10. You get a surprise often with these little eggs..you think they aren't fertile, then by day 8 to 10, you see them.
I would leave the fertile egg under Dixie. I wouldn't leave her own eggs under her for long. Nope. :/
Practice eggs along with the one silkie egg you have under her is a good idea...take Gary up on that!

 

[Cynthia12]

Silly, my chicks went fast. I put them on fb. The Utah County Poultry page. Someone from Richfield came and got them..they were here in Utah County for the day.
I still have quite a few left..I think I kept two EE's, if they are both girls, I only want one. If when I am pretty sure of the sex, I'll let you know, and you can let me know if your friend is still interested.

 

[Cynthia12]

She is so pretty.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Iluv, don't chuck any eggs until day 10. You get a surprise often with these little eggs..you think they aren't fertile, then by day 8 to 10, you see them.
I would leave the fertile egg under Dixie. I wouldn't leave her own eggs under her for long. Nope. :/
Practice eggs along with the one silkie egg you have under her is a good idea...take Gary up on that!

Did this happen to you? Did you think some were bad at 6-7days and then found them developing at 10 days? I hope that happens to me, ill definitely hang onto them and check again on day 10 just incase. I guess i'll leave the one fertile one with dixie that I already gave her, but what would you do about the remaining 3 that are developing? Should I give them to her also and then set a whole new batch of eggs in the bator? Or should I only give her the one, and keep the remaining eggs in the bator where I could keep an eye on them. Which will give them the best chance of making it to hatch?
Also I ordered some silkie sized wooden eggs yesterday that she can use when she goes broody, but not sure this is the time to switch out the infertile ones for them. I dont want her to refuse them, and end up refusing the fertile egg.

 

[Cynthia12]

Where it's her first time, just leave the one. Get a couple of fertile eggs from Gary, so if it hatches, she won't just have a loner chick. Keep the other three...or more, in the bator.

Yes, when I started hatching for the first time, I couldn't tell every time if the eggs were fertile or not. Kept reading that folks were keeping them in until day 10, when you can really see movement. Don't be candling them every day. Don't want to handle them too much. Just wait until day 10..you can do it!

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Where it's her first time, just leave the one. Get a couple of fertile eggs from Gary, so if it hatches, she won't just have a loner chick. Keep the other three...or more, in the bator.

Yes, when I started hatching for the first time, I couldn't tell every time if the eggs were fertile or not. Kept reading that folks were keeping them in until day 10, when you can really see movement. Don't be candling them every day. Don't want to handle them too much. Just wait until day 10..you can do it!

Oh I planned on keeping all the chicks together whether I gave them all to dixie when they all hatch, or taking the one I gave her when it hatches and bringing it into the house with the others in a warm brooder so I can make sure its warm enough since I dont know how well it would do out there with the other chickens. Dixie would surely keep it warm but anytime it came out to try to eat/drink I think it would be too cold for it, and the coop is too high for a little chick to go in and out of, so I was figuring id bring it inside for a couple weeks and then in the brooder in the shed till feathered. I wanna leave them all outside with dixie to care for but I really worry about how warm they would be anytime they are not covered by her, and they wouldnt be able to jump into the coop for a while.