Not only do Silkies lay tiny eggs, they only lay around per year. That works out at around per week. The main reason for the breaks in laying is because they tend to broody often. Silkies are natural mothers and love nothing more than sitting on eggs and incubating them. Related — When do Silkies start laying?
Silkies are a good backyard breed, yes. If you want to keep a flock for eggs, I recommend checking out breeds like the Rhode Island Red or the California White. Silkies can be entered into poultry shows, which can become a fun pastime to get involved in, and they also provide a natural form of pest control as they gobble up any insects they find. And probably the largest benefit, silkies provide their owners with fresh eggs to eat themselves or sell.
Silkies are excellent layers of relatively large-sized bantam eggs, and unlike most other breeds, silkies will continue laying eggs throughout the winter because their fluffy feathers keep them warm and content. In addition to being great egg layers, silkies are known for being the broodiest of all chicken breeds and are often used to incubate and raise the offspring of other poultry. Even though silkie chickens are easy, fun, and inexpensive to keep as pets, it is possible to obtain sickly chickens, which makes it much more difficult and expensive to keep a flock healthy.
This means that when purchasing silkie chickens, potential owners should only work with reputable breeders. The National Poultry Improvement Plan NPIP provides certification that poultry and poultry products destined for interstate and international shipments are disease free.
Skip to main content. Content ID Silkie chickens make great pets because they are inexpensive to keep, easy to care for, and provide many benefits to their owners. By Debbie Hosley. Read more about Poultry. More Poultry. Raising organic pasture chickens. February storms put a hitch into U. Make sure she stays warm and dry. She will get off to eat once a day but keep an eye on this as sometimes a Silkie can go so broody she will forget to eat or drink, make sure the food and water is close by so she can get to them easily.
If she is not getting up to eat and drink then you will need to remind her that this is a god idea. Gently move her off her eggs, she will give you a little bit of chatter but persevere, once she is off she will automatically go for her food and water then immediately sit back down again. But this never happens! The eggs will take up to 21 days to start piping in the case of hen eggs. Eggs from common ducks like Pekins require 28 days to hatch.
Eggs from Muscovy ducks hatch in about 35 days. What to do when the eggs start Pipping. When your eggs begin to pip the chick uses their little beak to break the shell from the inside. This means your chicks are on their way, this can begin anywhere from 2 days before hatch date to up to 2 days after so the main thing is to be patient. With a sitting Silkie you will not need to do much, she will do the work for you; just keep an eye on her.
If you have a lot of other hens in your coup you may need to move them to allow your Silkie some peace to hatch the new babies. Once her babies are hatches and a few days old then you could move her and them to a secluded location away form jealous older birds and cockerels.
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