Re: Chickens not laying

pecan wrote:

No, Jill, the new Mom is a silky, under which we hatched normal
chicken eggs.

Ah -- they have a better reputation for being good Mum's
She may just have been taken unawares by the weather
Are there cooler times of the year you can hatch when they are laying?

The eggs have a 90% chance of having come from one of
our hens that was battery-bred, and the last 10% was a pet-shop bird
which I had been told was male so was probably also battery-bred.

I would be surprised at the latter as usually the sexing is VERY accurate !
<grin>

This may explain why the chicks are so weak, though.

Indeed so.
They are not designed to be parents either.
The breeding goes into craeting the grandparent and parent stock with them
as the culmination - not as part of a forward process
That is one of the reasons I am so cross about the "fashionable" hybrids
being produced in this country these past few years. They are mimicking pure
breeds but all based on production leghorns and similar hybrids. There is NO
vigour in them at all yet they are targeting the domestic market who will
inevitably breed from them.
All they will create is weak sickly dilutions of our national flock.
Its understandable if someone buys a sussex-like hen to breed it to a Sussex
cockerel -- the offspring will look sort of okay but be contaminated with
the production stocks. The more it happens the further and further we get
from a healthy national flock of good birds
I fear that in many ways we have probably already lost the battle.
The modern magazine publishers are not interested in quality breeding. Like
everyone else - they are interested in fashion -- its what pays the bills


When the silkies
hatched their own eggs there was no problem at all, they were
fantastic mothers, so that's why we tried with the second batch to
put normal eggs under them. It's been difficult from the very
beginning, though.

I think you may have to rethink your timing and facilities a bit to
accommodate your location


I now have 5 hens that were not battery-bred, and the one has laid
eggs and is now sitting on them - I think she's been there about 10
days. We'll see what happens with those.

Good luck



--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk


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