Mid-Atlantic Wildfowl Breeders Association
How to hatch wild waterfowl using Silkie Chickens as surrogate moms. A step by step instruction on setting eggs, brooding hatchlings, outside brooding and finishing young birds for the outside pond.
Group clutches of eggs according to size, (i.e.) teal size, duck size & goose size in separate rooms or pens. Also, use smaller hens for teal clutches and larger hens for duck & goose clutches.
I divided the end on my poultry house into three sub-sections with a door to each pen. The outside yards also had a walk-in door to each pen. The exterior aviary style pens were covered with wire also on the top to prevent flying predators from attacking the hens during their rest-breaks. A small trap door between the interior room and yard, was closed at night to prevent new hatchlings from escaping into the yard and becoming chilled.
I like to keep my setting areas limited to 8 hens, placing the nest boxes on the floor.
The hens are able to see that a clutch of eggs are available after their daily feedings. I have noted that on hot days the amount of time off the eggs are longer and more frequent.
The hens are never forced to stay on the eggs by use of doors or boards. I totally trust their instincts.
A 1/2" wire cloth screen is placed on the front of the nest box once the eggs have pipped..to keep the hen & brood together. By bending the wire screen in a L shape.. allowing about five inches to rest on the top of the box and the remainder to cover the front opening... I place a heavy brick on top to hold the screen in place. I like screening because a large clutch of eggs may heat-up & get quite moist, thus air flow is not hindered, whereas a solid board would cause too much heat and humidity buildup. You can loose hatchlings quickly to drowning in the eggs or getting to big to hatch properly.
After moving your broodie silkies to their nest boxes, set clutches of dummy eggs or whatever you want to fool with after you pull "the starter eggs" and give them the really good stuff!
I usually start my hens off with mallard eggs or chicken eggs. If you don't want to incubate eggs, take some from the refrigerator after a couple of weeks storage or use hard boiled eggs.
When the hen is settled and setting tight, you can start replacing the dummy clutches with those precious eggs you have waited so long for.
By sorting your egg size to individual pens, it will not matter if the hens change their nesting sites.
Make a label or index card and mark the top of each nest box with the necessary data; species, date set, due to hatch date, quantity and hen description if desired.
I used to turn the eggs and mist them daily, but, I found that my area seems to be humid enough and the hens are capable enough to do the turning routine. By checking your eggs daily for size of the air cell compared to the length of incubation, you should be able to judge when misting the eggs is necessary. This cell space comparison comes with most incubator manuals.
I also feel each clutch for a temperature comparison every night. If you find the eggs are a bit cool, watch that hen, she may be getting ready to "quit for more pay or a better position." I had this happen one time in ten years and the ole girl was a teenager by our age standard. Why keep her? She would have raised snakes if I let her. I found a black snake coiled up under her ...once long ago.. in the dark. Cold scaly eggs... sorry I looked... & screamed! Yikes!!!
Brooder Setup
Gary, the Husband and Chief Maintenance Officer, was kind enough to make some lightweight brooder units for me. These were constructed around the use of 18" square commercial carpeting. Dark green is a nice background color when you sprinkle feed and mashed hard-boiled egg yolk on it. Meal worms & tiny crickets show up well also. Silkies are not prone to scratching heavy like other bantam breeds and they are also good about not eating up the live foods.
These rug squares are individually removed and replaced with clean, dry fresh ones daily. They are easy to hose off and dry in the sun. They will not punch up like some liners, especially if you use another type of bantam that may scratch a bit as you feel her brood.
Using 2 rug squares will give a 18" x 36" inside measurement. We use a 100 watt bulb for the first 2 or 3 days on one side of the box, resting it on an old grill or refrigerator grate and in a standard shop light fixture. The height of the box is 16" and a temperature of 90 degrees F will be the average temperature. The hen will generally stay off from the light a bit. Chilling would occur should a duck stray from the hen without the bulb for back-up heat.
Higher temperatures of 102 degrees is recommended for more delicate species such as; Bufflehead, Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Smew, etc., for which we use larger starting boxes and hang a heat lamp to the side of the box. Be careful to check & maintain this temperature, before you add your hen & brood. I take this reading on the floor of the box!
On the fourth day, a 60 watt bulb can be used and a 40 watt bulb is used for the 7-10 day period. I turn the lite off at night for a few nights just before they go outside in the lawn box...so they learn to sleep under the hen at night and keep warm. Choose a warm sunny day to put the hen & the brood outside for the first day. A slope to the lawn will help run off in the event of a heavy rains and holes drilled in the boards at the base will also prevent water building up inside the lawn boxes.
We have tried wet brooders but found that by using hens and less heat bulb wattage, we were more successful keeping them dry till they were moved outside. We have not experienced any waterproofing problems with the ducklings since using this method. The waterproofing process is very short with warm sunshine as a stimulate to the ducklings.
However, weather is always a factor with any movement of a bird, be it duckling or adult.
Lawn Boxes;
My lawn boxes are about 3' x 5', with a covered sheltered end, top & sides and a back door. The front, sides & top are covered with a 1/2" wire cloth (rat wire) material to keep pests out and ducklings in. They have a door up front on the top the pen for feeding and water changes. I use plastic bedding plant flats purchased from any lawn & garden supplier. The plastic flats are 11" x 21" x 2 1/2" deep. The smallest teal do very well in these.
The boxes can be moved to clean grass spots as needed and the soiled areas are hosed down to dissolve the waste and not kill the grass. Move one end of the box at a time & be careful not to catch any feet or heads. Only one person should do this task! By lifting the box from one end at a time with the extending handles, you can gently slide each end to a new fresh spot, hen & brood moving as you go!
Baby Pond Time;
Once your birds are feathered and waterproofed, they are ready for the aviary. I move the hen with her brood. She will keep the clutch together and teach them the way of life. You will be amazed to see her walk in shallow water and teach them the new feeding routines.
Our baby pond is shallow around the edges and easy to get in and out of. Triangle shaped hutches are placed in the aviary for shelter at night and shade during the day. The hutches are secured by wire tied to rods drove in the ground to prevent blowing over from strong winds. The hens are left outside till Fall, but when the weather is getting a bit cold and damp, it's back to the poultry house for a well earned rest and long winter naps!
We have used silkie hens to raise Smew, Hooded Mergansers, NA Ruddy Ducks and Teal.
Some of the species from previous years include; Swan (in an emergency), Cackling geese, Barnacle Geese, Snow Geese, Common and Paradise Shelducks and most of the Dabbling and Perching duck species.
However, it takes quite a few hens to set goose eggs, usually 2 or 3 eggs per hen, so we let the parent geese do the incubation and rearing of their offspring.
In the near future, Nesting Ponds will have a new building. Hopefully, it will have numerous starting units for setting, brooding and conditioning for the baby pond transfer. The design will have indoor pens and outside runs with a shallow canal running through the end of each unit. Each unit will be for one hen and her brood, with shutdown doors for night and during rain storms. That has been our biggest problem in the past. We can not go very far for fear of bad weather!
