An old hand at poultry keeping once told me "As the fertilisation of the egg rests on the vigour of the stock cockerel, it is folly to allow the stock birds to run together right throughout the year.
It is imperative, if strong and healthy chickens are desired, to remove the stock cock for at least four or five months in the year. This will allow the bird to recover his flagging energies, before being again placed in the breeding pen" He was well into his eighties and had had much success over the years but the main piece of advice here is to allow all your breeding stock to have a good rest.
It works well for very small broodies like Silkies, but it is too small for a larger bird to turn around in easily. The last reason you may not want to have a broody hen hatch your eggs is that a hen can only reliably hatch a few eggs at a time. Bantams can't easily hatch more than six or seven large eggs at a time. So how long does it take Silkie and Showgirl eggs to hatch? We are all told it takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch, but sometimes they will hatch a little early, but I still stop turning mine on day I learned that the hard way the first time when I was candling an egg right before taking the egg turner out.
It was day 18 and the little egg started chirping at me when I shined the light through it! I put it straight back in the incubator and it pipped an few hours later. Went on to hatch with no problems at all. My bantams always hatch early whether they are in an incubator or under a hen it makes Little difference, they hatch 24 to 36 hours before large fowl eggs.
My Japanese and Serama bantams hatch on day My Silkies normally on day This is relatively easy as the naked neck gene is an incompletely dominant trait. This means that even a single copy of the gene shows in the offspring to a varying extent. The idea is to choose excellent quality Silkies and get the naked neck in your line first. Guessing which Showgirls are males is even more difficult than sexing Silkies and that is saying something!
But you can easily find the female offspring in this cross as all the females from this cross will have black skin because the gene for black skin is sex linked. Select the naked necked females with 5 toes and the combs and crests that best match the standards.
Cross the Naked Neck female offspring with Silkie males and the to produce the second generation F2. The reason you keep breeding back to Silkies initially is to improve type. You want the birds to be Silkies with the naked neck gene rather than a hybrid mix of Naked Necks Turkens and Silkies. In later crosses, it matters much less but using a showgirl male is a better choice. If you use a Showgirl male on Silkie females, you get more Showgirl chicks for your investment.
One Showgirl male with three females laying well could fertilise 12 eggs a week. The Showgirls I use are heterozygous for the naked neck gene. These birds have more than just a few feathers on the front of their necks. The normal ones look just like regular Silkies but might have the poor type of the Showgirl parent. It will take quite a lot of chicks and at least three generations before you get something decent.
This always gets a wide variety of responses. The simple answer is you should wait until the bird is fully mature before making your decision about whether or not to breed. I personally never breed from a chicken in it's first season and always wait until the second year. Birds with genetic defects can and should be removed from the breeding program as soon as it is obvious what afflicts the animal. Chicks with splayed legs for example should never be bred from even if they turn out okay.
Like my content? Sign up to be on our email list. Breeding Silkie chicken and Showgirl bantams: Silkie chicken reproduction is relatively easy if you can get enough eggs from your birds before they go broody. Semen exits through it. Ducks have a penis but chickens do not. A hen lays an egg every day or so regardless if there is a rooster around or not. In order for it to be a fertile egg, you will need the rooster to do his part. The white is created and then lastly the shell will form around the egg.
A fertilized egg will have a dot surrounded by a ring around it which looks like a bullseye on the yolk. In an infertile egg there will only be a white dot. You can check this out by cracking open an egg and looking at it. He picks up the food and drops it repeatedly in order to attract the hen.
He may even offer the morsel in his beak. It all looks very romantic and sweet but he is also establishing his role among the hens as a provider and leader. There are many different recommendations as to how many hens per rooster to give you adequate fertility in your eggs.
Most say eight to twelve hens per rooster. If you have a heavier breed, the ratio would be lower. If you have a smaller breed the ratio would be higher. If you would like more information on how to improve fertility in roosters check out this article. You may want to isolate breeders to make sure that you know who the father is. Wait at least two weeks if your hen has been exposed to other roosters to make sure that all of the sperm inside the hen is no longer active.
If you are interested in showing poultry or are just interested in improving your flock you can set up breeding pens where you can isolate certain pairings in order to get certain types of chicks. As winter ends and spring begins the testosterone in the roosters starts to rise. Roosters will begin to mount challenges to each other as they fight for the rights to the hens. You may want to separate the roosters, but remember, once you separate them it will be very hard to put them back together again.
Crowing is both an invitation to hens and a warning to other roosters in the area. Serious fights can happen between roosters. They can use their sharp spurs as weapons. Aggression when establishing dominance is normal behavior in the chicken world. If you give them plenty of space, they will usually work the dominance hierarchy out themselves. The American Bantam Association accepts six standard colors of Silkies for showing: black, blue, buff, white, partridge, splash and gray.
However, there are also some non-standard, yet, popular colors. These popular non-standard colors are red, lavender, porcelain and cuckoo. A common question associated with silkies, and chickens in general, is do they make good pets? The answer is absolutely yes for the following reasons:. Silkie chickens are extremely affordable pets to own, especially when considering the benefits of keeping them such as access to fresh eggs, pest control, and companionship.
Silkies need a chicken coop, which should be a onetime expense, fresh food and water, and the occasional dust bath to keep mites at bay.
A small fence should also be put up around the area silkies will be allowed to roam. Fortunately, all of these expenses — including the coop and fence — can be kept to a minimum by purchasing premade, simple products or constructing them at home. Chicken feed is quite cheap when purchased, and silkies can also eat scraps from your home and insects they find themselves hence the natural form of pest control.
The coop, food, and water provided to silkies should be kept as clean as possible to ensure the birds stay content and healthy. Silkies should also be looked over weekly for mites, lice, and changes in health; should lice or mites be found, the entire flock should be treated, which is relatively easy and inexpensive.
Silkies are hardy and resilient, and they are able to thrive in both cold and warm climates. These chickens are long-lived, often having life spans up to around nine years old, and continue to stay beautiful even when older.
The fact that silkie chickens are unable to fly due to their fluffy plumage makes them the easiest of all chickens to keep as pets because they are that much easier to contain.
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