Another Silkie Chick

We’re getting a rash of only, early chicks. Here we have an unexpected Silkie chick.

As much as they are the most vulnerable chicks and have a lowered chance of survival, they do surprisingly well with the roulette wheel of reaching hatching at all. I don’t “help” my Silkie hens keep eggs, ie., I don’t isolate them with a set of eggs and food unless I mean for them to hatch some eggs I want them to hatch. When not doing that, I leave them to themselves, and they come and go for food and water and go in and out of different rooms, and rob eggs from each other and shuffle them around….I don’t even know what goes on in there.

Sometimes it seems like they’re playing trading cards with them, and I swear they are capable of moving the eggs from room to room, which is impressive, to go around two corners. I mark the eggs so that I’m only removing fresh, unmarked eggs, and that’s it. So in that kind of coop anarchy, a chick is doing pretty well to reach hatch, especially this early in the year! But once they’re a week old, they’re usually here to stay.