When to pull her off the clutch

[Chipperchickens]

About a month ago I had a silkie go missing. I honestly thought she was snatched up by a predator or possibly picked up by a FIP on vacation, thinking the chicken was lost. (I free range for about 3 hours a day and all day sat/sun). After searching high and low we came to the conclusion she was gone for good...Fast forward, I have a serama bantam that has spurts of broodiness. About 2 weeks ago, the serama bantam didn’t coop at night. Having seen her about a half hour before, foraging with the flock, I knew she was probably hiding an egg from me and sitting on it. Sure enough, she was under the coop with a small clutch of six. (My coop is a repurposed shed) while retrieving my serama bantam I noticed that signature white, cotton ball fuzz coming out of a far corner under the coop!!! To our surprise, it was the missing silkie! The next morning I decided to check up on her and she was sitting on a clutch of 42 eggs! I guess she had been stealing them from the nesting box inside the coop, or her girl friends were just making “donations” directly. Knowing that such a small bird couldn’t possibly maintain auch a large clutch, I reduced the size to 10 eggs, which I deemed viable via candle lighting. Which brings me to today, it’s August 18th, and I’m thinking the eggs are getting really close to hatching. Will she instinctively get off of them if they don’t hatch? I really don’t want her to sacrifice her health for “dud” eggs.

 

[Chipperchickens]

About a month ago I had a silkie go missing. I honestly thought she was snatched up by a predator or possibly picked up by a FIP on vacation, thinking the chicken was lost. (I free range for about 3 hours a day and all day sat/sun). After searching high and low we came to the conclusion she was gone for good...Fast forward, I have a serama bantam that has spurts of broodiness. About 2 weeks ago, the serama bantam didn’t coop at night. Having seen her about a half hour before, foraging with the flock, I knew she was probably hiding an egg from me and sitting on it. Sure enough, she was under the coop with a small clutch of six. (My coop is a repurposed shed) while retrieving my serama bantam I noticed that signature white, cotton ball fuzz coming out of a far corner under the coop!!! To our surprise, it was the missing silkie! The next morning I decided to check up on her and she was sitting on a clutch of 42 eggs! I guess she had been stealing them from the nesting box inside the coop, or her girl friends were just making “donations” directly. Knowing that such a small bird couldn’t possibly maintain auch a large clutch, I reduced the size to 10 eggs, which I deemed viable via candle lighting. Which brings me to today, it’s August 18th, and I’m thinking the eggs are getting really close to hatching. Will she instinctively get off of them if they don’t hatch? I really don’t want her to sacrifice her health for “dud” eggs.

She is very trusting of me, and regularly lets me retrieve any new egg she acquires without fuss!

 

[Shadrach]

About a month ago I had a silkie go missing. I honestly thought she was snatched up by a predator or possibly picked up by a FIP on vacation, thinking the chicken was lost. (I free range for about 3 hours a day and all day sat/sun). After searching high and low we came to the conclusion she was gone for good...Fast forward, I have a serama bantam that has spurts of broodiness. About 2 weeks ago, the serama bantam didn’t coop at night. Having seen her about a half hour before, foraging with the flock, I knew she was probably hiding an egg from me and sitting on it. Sure enough, she was under the coop with a small clutch of six. (My coop is a repurposed shed) while retrieving my serama bantam I noticed that signature white, cotton ball fuzz coming out of a far corner under the coop!!! To our surprise, it was the missing silkie! The next morning I decided to check up on her and she was sitting on a clutch of 42 eggs! I guess she had been stealing them from the nesting box inside the coop, or her girl friends were just making “donations” directly. Knowing that such a small bird couldn’t possibly maintain auch a large clutch, I reduced the size to 10 eggs, which I deemed viable via candle lighting. Which brings me to today, it’s August 18th, and I’m thinking the eggs are getting really close to hatching. Will she instinctively get off of them if they don’t hatch? I really don’t want her to sacrifice her health for “dud” eggs.

Do you have a rooster?
If your Silkie has been under your shed for a month and hasn't hatched any eggs I would confiscate all the eggs and throw them away and set about discouraging any remaining broodiness in the Silkie.
Four weeks is really the maximum time one should allow a hen to sit.

 

[Chipperchickens]

Do you have a rooster?
If your Silkie has been under your shed for a month and hasn't hatched any eggs I would confiscate all the eggs and throw them away and set about discouraging any remaining broodiness in the Silkie.
Four weeks is really the maximum time one should allow a hen to sit.

Read the entire thread, before you respond. I stated that the eggs were candle lighted. And a few were even cracked just to confirm candle lighting was accurate. And there were numerous developing fetuses. I have 4 roosters, and I have my suspicions that girls were making direct deposits to her clutch, which means that the girls that were too big to be bred by my roosters laid many eggs that weren’t fertile. But my other bantam girls that could be bred by my roosters were making deposits as well. A month is simply a rough estimate of when she went missing. It could have been 3 weeks ago, simply a point of reference. I thought my bird was dead, not sitting on a clutch. The only accurate time is the two weeks she’s been sitting on the new clutch I arranged for her.

 

[Chipperchickens]

Possible baby daddies

 

[Shadrach]

Read the entire thread, before you respond. I stated that the eggs were candle lighted. And a few were even cracked just to confirm candle lighting was accurate. And there were numerous developing fetuses. I have 4 roosters, and I have my suspicions that girls were making direct deposits to her clutch, which means that the girls that were too big to be bred by my roosters laid many eggs that weren’t fertile. But my other bantam girls that could be bred by my roosters were making deposits as well. A month is simply a rough estimate of when she went missing. It could have been 3 weeks ago, simply a point of reference. I thought my bird was dead, not sitting on a clutch. The only accurate time is the two weeks she’s been sitting on the new clutch I arranged for her.

There were only two posts in the entire thread when I posted.
I read that you candled the eggs. I would need to be confident that you knew what a viable egg looked like and given you've posted a question where most people would know what the obvious answer is if they had any experience with broody hens and given you apparently didn't bother to check under your coop when your Silkie went missing to be honest my confidence in your competency is rather low.

 

[Chipperchickens]

There were only two posts in the entire thread when I posted.
I read that you candled the eggs. I would need to be confident that you knew what a viable egg looked like and given you've posted a question where most people would know what the obvious answer is if they had any experience with broody hens and given you apparently didn't bother to check under your coop when your Silkie went missing to be honest my confidence in your competency is rather low.

It’s amazing how angry you got after I told you to reread the post. First of all, I did look under my coop when the bird went missing. And if you saw where the bird was in orientation to the coop you would understand how she could have gone unnoticed. And obviously if I have access to this forum, I have access to other forms of information via the internet. That is how I identified viable eggs. And not only that, but with 42 eggs to observe and experiment with, I had plenty of opportunity to observe the characteristics of viable and unviable eggs. If it’s an argument you’re looking for you might want to try a different thread. Maybe go take a walk or take care of your birds for a little bit so you can stop being such an internet grouch?

 

[Shadrach]

It’s amazing how angry you got after I told you to reread the post. First of all, I did look under my coop when the bird went missing. And if you saw where the bird was in orientation to the coop you would understand how she could have gone unnoticed. And obviously if I have access to this forum, I have access to other forms of information via the internet. That is how I identified viable eggs. And not only that, but with 42 eggs to observe and experiment with, I had plenty of opportunity to observe the characteristics of viable and unviable eggs. If it’s an argument you’re looking for you might want to try a different thread. Maybe go take a walk or take care of your birds for a little bit so you can stop being such an internet grouch?

That's great. I'll leave you to seek others opinions.

 

[Chipperchickens]

That's great. I'll leave you to seek others opinions.

Thanks. I to help with your reading comprehension I’d start small.. maybe some Dr. Seuss?

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks. I to help with your reading comprehension I’d start small.. maybe some Dr. Seuss?

That's very thoughtful of you. Does he submit papers on chicken behaviour?
I'm very interested in the subject.