This is one of our Silkie hens, she hatched out one baby a couple of weeks ago.
Misc pictures, Silkies etc.....
Here are the white Silkies we hatched in the incubator. Sorry the pictures arn't hte clearest, they wouldn't hold still and all that stark whiteness just makes a glare.
another with the one little gray one.
the little gray one all alone.
One with the Naked neck or rather the Bow Tie Silkie
nIce pictures thanks. I just got three silkies. How old do they have to be before they can go outside ? I really like them allot
Thanks
I have five silkies two are broody so I ordered six white silkie eggs of ebay,should be here in a couple days,mine are partridge black and gray.
CherokeeGreg you can put them out in a day pen anytime as long as the temps arn't real cold. It gets into the 50's here at night and we still bring them in. Our baby Silkies (the white ones and gray one in the pictures) are a little over a month old now. Adult Silkies can tolerate cold temps real well.
The baby with the mama in the first picture is almost 3 weeks old. It isn't a full breed Silkie, that baby is a Silkie Cochin mix, the mama is a full Silkie.
Green, the white ones are so pretty. I wish my pictures were better. These are the first white ones we have had. And Silkie hens are the broodiest things I have ever seen. We have 6 Blue Silkies (gray color) and all but one was sitting on eggs. There are 4 in the Silkie house right now that just hatched out babies in the last 3 days. Two hatched this morning. We put standard size chicken eggs under them, so they have Buff Orpington babies and a couple of Amerauna mixes. Those colors really stick out against their gray color.
I have a question about my two broody silkies,I have ordered six white silkie eggs(I have wanted whites for awhile)from ebay and they should be here tomorow or the next day.The girls have been on these eggs for about 10 days,my question is if I put a fence in between them and give one the six that are comming and let the other have the ones they have been sitting on when they hatch will the other one get off her eggs when she sees the chicks that are so close to her?Or should I give one three and the other three of the eggs I ordered?They keep stealing eggs frpm one another so I will have to seperate them with fencing if I let one keep the older eggs because they will hatch at different times.
Here is another picture of them
Since they have been sitting on eggs already you may have to give one all those eggs and then the other the eggs that come in. You would have to seperate them because they will steal one anothers eggs and one anothers babies. If they are seperated the one with the newer eggs may or may not stay on the eggs. Usually they will stay with their clutch of eggs if the babies arn't real close.
We didn't have ours seperated so we have an interesting situation. Of the 4 we had sitting on eggs, one got up with the first two babies that hatched, they weren't even her babies, the others didn't seem to mind. We took her eggs and gave them to the other mamas Then as more eggs hatched they would take turns with getting up with the babies and sitting on eggs. Now 6 have hatched and 3 mamas are getting up with the babies and one is still sitting on eggs. We just took all the eggs that were left and put them in one nest. They are such broody things that as long as there are eggs one will get on them and sometimes there are two in one nest sitting on the eggs. I'm not sure if anymore will hatch and if nothing happens in the next day or so we will take the remaining eggs out.
It is funny though seeing all those babies and all those mamas together. Silkies are such interesting chickens.
The mama in the picture with the one baby is in a pen next to the 5 other baby Silkies that are about 5 weeks old. Today I let them all out to roam. The mama clucks and the babies come but she pecks at the older ones. However, when one was fussing and I picked it up she came and attacked me, so she was protective even of the bigger babies that arn't hers even though she pecks at them at other times..
ok thanks,guess I will take all the eggs from them when the new ones come and put them under them to be sure they will hatch out the white ones and that they all hatch at the same time.
I am loving mine. DH calls them Punk Rock chickens. He has named the white one Billy Idol and the unbarred red one Keith Richards
I have 30 laying chickens but I really like my silkies,even though they are not friendly or will let me hold them I just love them,they are so cute and there babies are so sweet and they are such good mama`s.
Donna that is too funny, we had some Polish chickens once and they really look like punk rockers, even moreso than the Silkies. The roo in this picture is Brownie, he is a Golden Laced Polish. This was taken a couple of years ago.
Green, Silkies are special little things. Ours are very tame and spoiled and we pick them up all the time. The mamas let us hold the babies and don't complain too much.
Oh I want a Bantam Polish to and a Millie Fleur D'Uccle. My Silkies won't let me hold them either. I had to many babies and juveniles to deal with when I got them to spend a lot of time holding them as chicks or the fact that I didn't hatch them. I think that is a friendly factor too. All the geese i hatched and chickens are friendly but the ones I bought through the mail or got at Feed Store don't want to be held
Still waiting for my ebay egss,should be here Monday.The dark colored silkie wanted out today so I took her out of the fence and she went out for about and hour and then wanted back in the other silkie tried to put all the eggs under her but could not,so I put a board in between them so they can`t see one another and the dark one is on 6 eggs and the buff one is on 5.The dark one this is her first time hatching eggs and I`m pretty sure the other one hatched chicks last year.So the ebay eggs will go under her as she stays on the nest and gets off only to poop and drink and eat.So when the ebay eggs come I will candle the ones they have been sitting on and give them to the dark one,and am hopping the with board there when they hatch the other will not be able to see them and she will stay on the ebay eggs, what do you think Smedgekles?
Here is a picture of what it looks like
Why does she push some of her eggs out and then puts them back later?I would think they would get cold
Wish now I would have paid better attention to what day they started setting now I don`t know when they babies will hatch.Oh well they are safe and have food and water close by.
The board should do the trick, she will probably stay on her eggs.
I think they can sense if the eggs are getting too warm and move them out from under them for a bit. I noticed ours would have theirs in front where they were barely on them and then later they were back under them completely.
I've heard chickens know if eggs are bad and will push them out but they won't take them back. We have never had any discard her eggs completely, ours will sit on them till they either hatch or start to stink because they are bad and we take them out. So I don't know how true that actually is.
When you candle them you may be able to tell about how far along they are. The closer to hatch the more the air pocket will slant.
Hope your Ebay eggs come soon so they will still be fertile.
Me to! I did email her and she said they would be good for 14 days.They were only comming from Alabama,our postal service is so slow.She mailed them out Tuesday morning
Sad how slow the mail is and the price to ship things keeps going up. I hope they make it okay and in one piece. Now you will have to let me know when you receive them because I'll be curious if they made it okay.
I will
NO EGGS YET!!!!!!!
I am a little confused about the woman saying the eggs would be "good for 14 days."
Although you shouldn't set an egg the day it is laid, eggs are supposed to be most viable the first 7 days after laying...which is about how long it would take a hen to collect a clutch. After day 7 the hatchability begins to decline rapidly. Also, when you receive shipped eggs, the advice is to let the eggs "rest" for 12 to 24 hours before setting them. Shipped eggs are a bit stressed to begin with.
Not that none would develop at 14 days...just that I wouldn't say they were "good" compared to eggs that were less than 10 days old.
Here is a site describing holding eggs for incubation:
http://www.karamsarincubators.com/gen-info2.htm
Still not here checked the update throught the postal service and they were sent to the wrong place now I don`t now when I`ll get them,did send an email to the ebayer and told her don`t know what she will do but my doubts of getting any live chicks in the future is almost nill.Havn`t heard back form her.That will be my last time ordering eggs through the mail.GRRRRRR!!!!!
oh no, sorry they are floating around in the mail system. I hope things work out well. Keep us updated.
They finally came today,all was well no broken ones,eas very well packed,put them under the broody and took her five wggs and candled them all five are growing looks like chicks could be here in a week or so,So I put them in with the gray broody and took her six eggs and candled them all growing except one so put all in with the gray one and she tucked all of them under her,she is going to be a busy first time mom,hope she does well.Thursday or Friday I have four bo`s that I ordered in March comming in they will go under the black sexlink that has been sitting on two golf balls for three weeks,I will wait untill night and she will babies from her golf balls in the morning,won`t she be surprised LOL.
Glad they came and all in one piece.
Yes, the black hen will be surprised that she got 4 chicks out of two "eggs".
Do you think they can count?
Hope not
Yup, they can. Sorta.
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/01/15/Study-Chickens-can-count/UPI-66941263593389/
She'll just think she laid double-yolkers.
Good one porkpal
Bobies are here will go under mama tonight
yay! Hope she takes them in without a problem.
They are under her,took her golf balls getting up at 5am to check things out
Sounds good, best of luck!
MY GOLF BALLS HATCHED!!!!!!Was up at 4;45 this morning to check on mama and babies,she if talking to them but won`t let them come out yet its to cold so I turned on the heat lamp for them,things seem to be going great,was so worried about what she would do.Hope to get bettter pictures later.
