[silverteen]

Im new to chicken keeping, only had my silkie hens about 5 weeks, i have a lovely coop for them and they have full access to all the garden during daylight. I have a white, black and a blue silkie hen and want to add 2 or 3 more. So rather than paying £15-20 a head i thought i could buy a cheap second hand incubator and some eggs and hatch my own and make a home made brooder.

im just concerned that as we live in a house and not a small holding/farm that i will run out of space for the chicks when they grow. if i got a 3 foot brooder made for them in the spare room how long would it be until they outgrew this? i was thinking about 6-8 chicks to get me started. Would the chicks be ok with the other silkies outside when they get their feathers? say at 6 weeks? if i did this soon it would be begining of march 6 weeks old and would still get cold at night, but i could put a fireglow bulb in the coop and point it at one half of it for the chicks?

any advice appreciated!
 im thinking of building my own coop with 2 60w fireglow bulbs, air vent etc  from either a large storage container or fencing for rabbit pens.

[Casey76]

Well, the first thing to consider is what will you do with all the boys that will hatch (eggs hatch 50:50 boys/girls, but if you have really bad luck - like I did this year - you could end up hatching 90% boys!)?

[silverteen]

 3 local farmers breed silkies and say they will take them off my hands if i drop them over ther which i dont mind doing

[kegs]

This is the brooder box that I use and after 10 days they went into another brooder set up in the garage.  I've got 4 chicks in the box at the moment and this morning after just 10 days one of them had managed to fly out !!

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=86800.0

I'm trying to integrate two flocks at the moment and I think that's the hardest part.  You have to have them near to each other but with a fence or something similar between them to start with so they can get used to each other without attacking the chicks.  It's whether you have room to allow for these two stages really.  Well done for plenty of forward planning though!  :blink:

[Tony H]

personly i wouldnt mix them with your other girls untill they at least 12 weeks old, the other girls will treat them the same as do any other chuc that is im the boss   and at 6 weeks they will get beat up alot   introdue them as you would any other newcommer,
on the other hand thou hatching eggs is great fun but be prepaired for the ones that die trying to get out of ther eggs, but its great if you have somewhere to take the unwanted one.

[Casey76]

Silverteen, to be honest, it will be much cheaper to pay £15-20 per bird, if you only want three more, than to buy the incubator, brooding equipment, electircity for heat, food, and eggs.

You aren't really going to get a decent second hand incubator for much less than £100.  don;t get me wrong, you can get incubators cheaper than that, but to cost in eggs and heartache when they don't hatch, or die as they hatch because of unstable temperature or humidity is very high.

If you are intent on brooding chicks, you might be better off buying them at a week old, and still be prepared for 50% boys if you get more silkies

[joyfull]

another option is to wait for one of your silkies to go broody and use her to hatch eggs, but even for this you will need a seperate broody ark plus a back up in case she abandons the eggs or even the chicks (I have had both in the past).

[rileyfin]

I think you should go for it :blink: You could always buy the eggs from the breeders in your area so the eggs dont get shaken up in the post, I bought from ebay and had reasonable results
I had 5 silkie hens and 1 cockerel, I had only had the hens 6 mnth and decided to hatch some eggs. It was so worth while, such fun. When the eggs hatched I used a small dog cage, as a brooder,  lined with a cardboard box to keep out draughts and kept it in my bathroom with a heat lamp hung overhead - I dont have much room.
In the summer I could let them out in the garden with the other girls. I would start for just a few minutes under an old fireguard at approx 5 days, as they got bigger I left them longer but would always keep checking. I built up the time outside and at approx 4 weeks they went out in a hutch all the time. This was in summer so it was warmer. In the winter I would keep them in to at least 12 weeks and transfer them into a large lined dog cage without the heatlamp when they get cramped.
The other girls used to give  the odd peck, but were not too bad because the chicks were young and when they were really small the cage protected them.
I found this a good way to do it, when I put them together in the same henhouse there were no majour problems.
The only girl that does not fit in is the one cuckoo i have, the rest are white, even the cockerel is not interested 
I am going to hatch more next year, cuckoo splash and blue to keep Pip company. It was a bit heartbreaking at times but that is nature.
Go for it, this site is great for advice, and good luck

[tstainesmoore]

firstly hatchiong your own is very fun and you should do it. however there are many things to consider. depending on what breeds you attempt to hatch the male to female ratio will not be great, average is about 60% male 40% female. also if you wanted to hatch 6-8 chicks then depending on reliability of eggs and breeds get about double the eggs than chicks wanted if for example you wanted another 6 hens.want 6 hens try and hatch about 14 eggs.plus you will have enough room but i rear birds under a heat lamp hanging above a ply wooden box and lift the heat lamp up as they get older, wait till about 10 weeks until introducing them depending on breed. buying 2nd hand incubators is fine i prefer Brinsea incubators they are amazing. plus chicken eggs take 21 days but sometimes they hatch late or early. reading books about incubation is also personally not advised. some will say add water i personally never add any wtaer ever it kills the chicks. advice is to try once with wtaer and once without and see which works best. good luck

[pepsi100]

I have been hatching eggs in an incubator for a few years, with mixed results,

Okay I have had a few cocks in the hatch, but that is to be expected

I have 2 brooders, 1 I dont need, it would house 6 chicks easy

This year hasnt been very succesful though (I have wrote another thread about the problems I have had)

When they do hatch, its great for the grand kids (or any kids) bit when they start getting decent feathers they dont look so cute, but now is the time to start bonding with them if you want

They will be off heat now and getting ready to go out (dependant on the weather) but a large cardboard box with a bit of mesh over it does stop them jumping out or taking flight

when they do meet their neighbours there will be feathers flying while they sort themselves out, but it dont take long

It can be rewarding, it can be heart breaking, but at the end, even if you end up with one chick, its worthwhile, as with anything there can be mishaps, go for it


If you want a brooder (with lamps) drop me a PM

[joyfull]

remember we do not allow buying or selling on this forum - whether openly or by pm's and anybody found doing so may be banned.

[pepsi100]

I'm not selling it, its surplus to requirement (I got 2, 1 is ideal for upto 6 chicks, the other is for upto 12-14)

I put it up for offer, FREE 

The PM was for an address