On August 1 our bantam silkie hen hatched 9 eggs sometime in the afternoon.  She remained sitting on the chicks all that day and the next.  I thought it was a bit odd that she had not moved on day two.  On the 3rd I checked under in an attempt to see how many chicks she had and noted two unhatched eggs.  She refused to move.  On August 4th, one of the other two eggs hatched.

The rooster with a different chick.

For those of you not familiar with chickens it should be noted that a hen will normally lay an egg every day (roughly) for a period of time and then she will start to sit on all her eggs and stop laying any more.  After 21 days the eggs hatch, often within a few hours of each other, regardless of when they were laid.  Usually all eggs that are going to hatch will hatch at that time and any remaining are duds, and can be discarded. 

By the time the last chick hatched the hen decided to leave the nest but that chick was unable to keep up and was on the ground when I found it.  I picked it up and put it with the others, but later that day when I went out to check them the chick was where I put it, but the hen and her other chicks had already moved off...

I figured I should bring the little one inside and set it up in an empty guinea pig cage.  I gave it a light for heat.

I noted the chick had splayed legs (not too bad in that it could stand but they really made it hard for the little one to walk).  I learned that spayed legs were somewhat common in late hatching chicks.  There are two methods of fixing splayed legs in chicks.  One is to keep it in a small cup and take it out often to give it food and water; the other is to put an elastic band around the feet, with a cut portion of a straw in between.  I did the second method and should have taken a photo of that.  I kept this on for two days (but removed it in the night).

The chick sitting down because it could not stand well.

The little chick is now 1 week old and doing well.  We call it a "him" but really do not know for sure.  We take him outside for periods of time but he still is kept in the cage indoors as we have gotten close to him and he will be more friendly than the outside chicks as the hen and rooster are very protective of them so they think people are bad!

Two days old.

About Silkie Chickens

Silkie chickens are often kept as ornamental pets.  They are unusual in that they have black/blue skin and meat.  They also have an extra toe.

Silkies come in bantam and standard sizes.

We keep ours as pets, they are just fun to have around and are super cute. 

About Keeping Chickens and Ducks Together

I have kept chickens, and have kept call ducks, but we did not keep them together, each was in its own pen.  The chickens were also free range - loose, but the ducks had duckings and we knew the cats would find that too tempting, so the ducks were kept in a large pen where the cats could not get in.

I often am asked if you can keep ducks and chickens together.  Many people want to do this year round, but more often it is a consideration for the winter as it is easier to have all outdoor animals together rather than going from pen to pen through deep snow.

One of the main considerations in regards to keeping ducks and chickens together is food. Ducks cannot have medicated chick starter.  The medication is toxic to ducks, so if you are feeding medicated chick starter or any medicated chicken feed, you cannot have ducks in the same enclosure.

Another concern is that ducks need water in order to eat their food.  They will often take a mouthful of food and dunk it in the water to soak it.  They do this because they do not have saliva.  This can make the water very messy for chickens to drink from.

Of course the other concern is that while ducks love to swim chickens cannot swim at all and will drown.  Even in a shallow pool chicken feathers can become waterlogged and will pull the chicken down if it cannot get out.  Ducks do not really "need" water for swimming, and in the winter when it is freezing cold they should not have water for swimming anyhow.

Aggressive roosters can be a concern too, sometimes aggressive drakes can be mean.  Always watch animals when putting them together.  Make sure you provide enough space so animals can get away from each other if they are being picked on.

Personally I would not recommend keeping ducks and chickens together in the same pen, as they are better off separate.

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Other Reading

Feeding Ducks and Chickens

Supplies Needed for Keeping Backyard Chickens

Our Newest Chicks

In the spring my husband bought me a pair of bantam Cochin Chickens.  I have always wanted Cochins, but we just never managed to get them for some reason or another.  I was really excited, not only are Cochins a super cute breed of chicken, but they are known for being a really good breed for raising chicks - that is to say Cochin hens are known for being broody.

My husband and I have never raised chicks from eggs yet, we always bought mature birds, although one time we did buy week old chicks - most turned out to be roosters so we sold those.

As the summer went on I was worried, the hen laid many eggs, but was not sitting on them.  I know a hen will  usually lay many eggs before sitting on them but got worried when she kept laying other batches of eggs in other areas of her coop.  I had no choice but to wait.  One day in June I did not see her in the pen, and soon realized she was indeed finally sitting on the eggs.  I had no idea how many eggs she had under her. 

For the next 21 days we waited.  Then on July 12, when I came home I noticed something was different, indeed mother Cochin had hatched out some chicks, and one had even fallen from the coop.  I picked that one up and it rushed under its mother to get warm.  We didn't disturb mother hen to see how many she had but were certain it was at least 4.

The following day we found out that mother hen had 9 chicks.  We put the chick starter, as well as a dish of food for the hen, in the coop.  We also put a very shallow dish of water in for them, knowing chicks can drown or get chilled if wet.

A couple of days later, mother hen took her little ones out of the coop and into the fenced yard to look around, it was the first day it had not rained here in ages.  The chicks seemed to enjoy it and stayed fairly close to mother hen.  Both the hen and rooster kept a watchful eye on all nine chicks.

If you are planning on keeping chickens and letting them raise chicks be sure you have a pen that is strong and the wire is such that the tiny chicks cannot get out.  You need to have chick starter for the little ones too, and be sure there is no water that they can fall into or even shallow water that will wet them and give them a chill.

Read more here:  Raising Pet Cochin Chickens
Why Won't My Chicken Eggs Hatch?