When to pull her off the clutch

[50-45-1]

My experience is that Yes, your hen will give up at some point.
i have had missing hens return after a long absence with no chicks,
Since you know where your hen is and are checking her daily, i would remove her eggs and break her at some point using your story as reference for timeline.
Forgive me for innocent question, but is your hen in a safe from preditors situation under the shed?
Good luck with your broody.
with that many roosters she should certainly end up with some chicks.

 

[Chipperchickens]

My experience is that Yes, your hen will give up at some point.
i have had missing hens return after a long absence with no chicks,
Since you know where your hen is and are checking her daily, i would remove her eggs and break her at some point using your story as reference for timeline.
Forgive me for innocent question, but is your hen in a safe from preditors situation under the shed?
Good luck with your broody.
with that many roosters she should certainly end up with some chicks.

Thank you for actually giving a helpful response. just to give you a little more info. My coop has an L shape 20’x20’ enclosed run. Luckily she was hiding in the run under the shed the whole time. So she had ample access to food, water, and was entirely safe.. She was tucked in the front corner, under my coop, with a huge leaf nest. She was practically camouflaged... I actually found that all the chickens were squeezing through a small hole I left for the younger birds (to beat the heat or stay out of the way of the older birds). I’ve now closed that gap because of this incident lol. She now has her own private corner in the coop, much easier to access her from there than digging her out I’m thinking I’ll give it to Wednesday or Thursday... It’s just a little confusing with the fact that the other bigger 2/3 year old chickens were squeezing into such a small gap and laying down there the entire time

 

[Chipperchickens]

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

All jokes aside, if you actually took the time to read the post you’d probably retract your advice to “throw them all out”. Although numbers weren’t initially included, it was mentioned that I concluded with the size of the clutch and variety of eggs, they weren’t all hers any way. From there I used deductive reasoning before I even candlelighted and cracked a few, by identifying silkie eggs. With 16 adult hens, 4 roosters (varying in size), and eggs being laid every day, It’s kind of hard to determine which eggs have the best shot at hatching. In conclusion, if she had been under there for a month, like I previously estimated, I could still have a fertile egg that she just started incubating from a week prior. I’ve never let a hen hatch out eggs, that’s why I went through all the effort to help her finish the job she started. That’s why I’m on the forum trying to obtain knowledge from people who enjoy the hobby and teaching others. It really is helpful to read the whole entire post, process the info, then respond. Says your from Spain, so maybe there’s a language barrier, and you didn’t understand the original post, idk.

 

[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.

 

[mamablair]

Yay! Good work silkie mama!

 

[Ebony Rose]

From my understanding of the situation, she went missing (brooding) about a month ago, give or take a week or so... you found her on a mountain of eggs and candled them all, allowing her to keep ten that you think has a good shot of hatching out. GREAT JOB!
My suggestion is allow her to brood, she's WORKED hard for it. I would also suggest serving her a dish of sardines, oil and all, mixed in with her standard chicken feed. The added oil from the sardines will provide loads of nutrition and calories. While brooding, hens typically eat A LOT less, and because she went 'missing' for so long, I fear for her body fat. A hen can actually starve herself trying to bring life into the world. Oh and... because she's so trusting of you, I strongly recommend a drop or two of chick booster daily until she's completed her hatch. Chick Booster (name brand) contains a very long grocery-list of vitamins and minerals to further supplement her. It's unlikely that she is laying eggs at this point, so she's probably brooding her 'sisters' eggs. I don't know if you've ever made a chicken drink liquid medications or supplements in the past, so I'll try to briefly outline how I manage to get them to open their mouth and take it like a big girl ;p While cradling her with your non-dominant arm, use the fingers of that hand to pinch and gently tug her waddles down, once her mouth pops open, slide one of the fingers on the same hand between her upper and lower beak. With your dominant hand, allow a drop of the vitamin supplement to drip into her mouth, on/under her tongue. Release her waddles. Her mouth should slam shut and she should start swallowing. Enjoy your upcoming arrivals

 

[Chipperchickens]

From my understanding of the situation, she went missing (brooding) about a month ago, give or take a week or so... you found her on a mountain of eggs and candled them all, allowing her to keep ten that you think has a good shot of hatching out. GREAT JOB!
My suggestion is allow her to brood, she's WORKED hard for it. I would also suggest serving her a dish of sardines, oil and all, mixed in with her standard chicken feed. The added oil from the sardines will provide loads of nutrition and calories. While brooding, hens typically eat A LOT less, and because she went 'missing' for so long, I fear for her body fat. A hen can actually starve herself trying to bring life into the world. Oh and... because she's so trusting of you, I strongly recommend a drop or two of chick booster daily until she's completed her hatch. Chick Booster (name brand) contains a very long grocery-list of vitamins and minerals to further supplement her. It's unlikely that she is laying eggs at this point, so she's probably brooding her 'sisters' eggs. I don't know if you've ever made a chicken drink liquid medications or supplements in the past, so I'll try to briefly outline how I manage to get them to open their mouth and take it like a big girl ;p While cradling her with your non-dominant arm, use the fingers of that hand to pinch and gently tug her waddles down, once her mouth pops open, slide one of the fingers on the same hand between her upper and lower beak. With your dominant hand, allow a drop of the vitamin supplement to drip into her mouth, on/under her tongue. Release her waddles. Her mouth should slam shut and she should start swallowing. Enjoy your upcoming arrivals

Thank you so much! I will be buying sardines and vitamins ASAP tomorrow. Here’s the first to hatch

 

[Ebony Rose]

Yeah!

 

[BigBlueHen53]