Those Silky Bantams are prolific! Way too prolific. The first time our “chief” hen, Louise, sat on a nest of eggs, we marked the date on the calendar, checked the progress almost daily, and were so excited for those first babies to hatch. We closed the coop door and kept all the chickens inside til the babies were big enough to go outside. It was during the winter so keeping them inside wasn’t a big deal.
The second batch of babies . . we weren’t nearly so excited but it was in the spring and it was too warm to keep all the chickens inside the coop til the babies were big enough to go outside. The babies ares so small that when they first go outside, they go right through the chicken wire with no problems. Mom can’t go through the chicken wire and she panics when the babies are beyond her protection.
The third batch of babies . . we bought the chicken nursery. That was another (a fourth) coop to clean, and make sure there was food and water.
The fourth batch of babies . . it ended up being just one that hatched. We didn’t even know an egg had hatched til I was gathering eggs and saw him. That was July 8. We just left him in with the others. He ran around outside the pen, Louise flipped out stayed in a panic but he survived and most always came back into the run in time to get closed up at night. A few nights Vince and I had to chase him down and catch him.
Silky Baby
Here it is just a tad over two months later and yesterday I was outside gathering eggs and found a little surprise.
Silky Baby
We’ve gone from 3 Silkies to 9 Silkies. Louise has more eggs under her but really, I’m hoping just one hatched. We just don’t need more Silkies!
Sherrill says
You could start having fried chicken for dinner (JUST KIDDING!!!). That’s a lotta chicks.
Mel Meister says
more like squab! LOL!
Karen Langseth says
Fresh chicken tastes wonderful (I’m not kidding)……once you have had farm fresh, you will never go back!!!
JudyL says
I’ve had fresh chicken plenty of times but silkies are mostly all bones and their meat is black . . blacker than duck! Not what we want to eat.
Deb K says
awwww. How sweet.
Lee says
Well, until I saw your reply to Karen, I was going to say chicken stew. Stew or not, they’re cute 🙂
Deb in AZ says
Aw, they are so cute. We have some Cochin bantams that mated with our Silky roo. Those chicks grew up to be an assortment of colors and some are frizzled. Yes, that led to another coop in our side garden. But they are so darling like little wind-up toys, lots of pleasure watching.
AngieG9 says
Are their eggs edible? They are really cute chicks. Maybe start selling them to kids in the area for playmates.
Helen Koenig1 says
any more babies today?