Did you buy sexed Silkies from MyPetChicken.com and....

I'm getting three silkie chicks from a great local breeder. I'll wait to see what I get from them before considering buying other silkies. They are all show quality birds for less the price than the sexed pullets.

I am ordering silkies for the first time. I considered going for the sexed females from MPC, but for the extra money and chance they could still be roosters, I did not want to chance not getting females and having to worry about separating a follow-up order from my main chickens until they got older.

I ended up ordering 3 female buff orpingtons, 3 female black australorps, 5 white silkie, and 5 splash silkie from Cackle Hatchery. They have a good reputation from my research, their shipping to my area was only $20 versus the $50 from MPC and other places, they guarantee their sexing and survival of the chicks on delivery and will refund or send you free ones with another order. They often include extra chicks in their orders. I would rather raise 10 silkies, get some roosters and hens, get the few females that I want, and sell/give away the rest I can't have on Craigslist. I decided I would rather try 3 straight run silkies over 1 "sexed." Of course, each person should do what is best for them. I have the room to raise 15 chicks in my shed and don't mind selling/giving away the extras that I don't want/need.

Since I live in the city roosters are a big no-no so I am looking to get one or two female silkies to be spoiled lap chickens but I would like to get them as young as possible. We already have our three egg layers (an Australorp, Orpington, and Speckled Sussex) and they don't want to be touched or held at all.

Yup. I can have roosters but I'm maxed out and no way could I process anything I've raised as a pet. I figure when I'm ready for bantams, I'll order $$$ sexed ones from MPC since they seem to have a good history with it and it saves me the heartache. I'm not showing or breeding, they're just for pets, so I don't mind if the beards or muffs aren't the greatest, only if they're happy, healthy and....female.

Can I see pics of everyone's (preferably white) silkies from my pet chicken?
I am trying to decide if I want to order from them, I know there are pics on the website but I'm not sure if they're their birds.

I know this is an old thread, but I want to share my experience getting sexed chicks from MyPetChicken. On February 7, 2021 I ordered 17 day old bantam chicks, but a couple of months later I changed my order to reduce the amount of chicks I had ordered, as I had already ordered too many chicks from 3 other hatcheries. On May 26, 2 days after they had hatched, I received the 10 pullets I purchased: 1 white Sultan, 1 blue splash maran, 1 exchequer Leghorn and 7 feather legged bantams which included 1 white Silkie, 1 black Silkie, 1 splash Silkie, 2 buff Brahma I thought were mille fleur d'Uccles, and 2 golden neck d'Uccles. But sadly 3 arrived DOA, the exchequer Leghorn and the 2 golden neck d'Uccles, seemed they had died midway through shipping, and the Sultan died the next day. 3 days later the black Silkie died. I was refunded for what I paid for them. I think I paid $26-28 per bantam sexed female, plus $56 for shipping). Of the surviving 6 chicks, the blue splash maran is definitely female and a total sweetheart, the 2 buff Brahma bantams are also female but very skitish, the splash Silkie I think is a pullet but it's still too soon to know for sure (I got another splash Silkie from a different hatchery and that one is a bit older and looks like it might be a female, crossing my fingers), but the white Silkie, which has a single comb instead of a walnut comb, appears to be male. It hasn't started crowing or trying to mate yet, and don't seem to have obvious streamers, but wattles seem large for age and because of how it behaves, challenging other chicks (though I've seen pullets sparring), seems to be a cockerel. So of the 6 survivors only 5 appear to be sexed correctly. I have until October to report if the white Silkie is male so I can get refunded.

I also purchased 52 straight run bantams from Ideal which included Silkies, but 2 died in shipping and 4 died within 2 days after arriving. The chicks that died were 2 of the 3 Sultans I purchased, 1 blue Silkie, 2 of 4 blue quail d'Anver, and 1 barred Old English Game bantam, but both they and I identified them incorrectly, so I got sent the wrong replacement. A few of the survivors had pasty butts and for 4 days I had to soak and clear their bums so they wouldn't die. 1 of the white Silkies came with an eye infection and soon developed a fungal skin infection which spread to the other 2 white Silkies, and I had to treat with antibiotic eye ointment an antifungal spray until it cleared. 1 of the black Silkies came with a crossed beak, so I gave her away. The surviving blue quail d'Anver which turned out to be a cockerel has a single comb, so I gave him away, as well as many of the other chicks that turned out to be male, which was about 55% of the surviving chicks. I purchased 2 Easter Egger bantams and both turned out to be male so I gave them away, and another chick that's supposed to be 1 of the blue quail d'Anver looks like a buff Easter Egger bantam, so not sure if they replaced 1 of the d'Anver I ordered with an EEB without letting me know. Of the 4 buff Sebrights only 1 is a pullet, and of 3 blue laced red Wyandotte bantams the 3 are male skittish or afraid of and hostile to me, so I'm giving them away, as almost nobody wants to buy cockerels. On my 2nd order Ideal sent me 6 chicks to replace the that had died, they sent me 1 golden neck d'Uccle cockerel, 1 mille fleur d'uccle pullet with a crocked beak, 1 bantam Easter Egger pullet, 1 blue Silkie that looks dark gray, 1 black Silkie, and 1 white Silkie. And 7 Brabanter sexed as pullets (4 cream and 3 golden) but unfortunately 3 of the 7 turned out to be male. so I doubt that their sexing accuracy is as high as the 80-85% they claim.

I guess I was lucky that of the 52 straight run bantam chicks I got from Ideal, about 45% turned out to be females and 55% males. Could have been much worst. But of 7 Brabanters purchased sexed as pullets, 4 turned out to females and 3 turned out to be males, so that lowers significantly their success percentage in sexing chicks that they claim to have (80-85%).

For those thinking that it'll be cheaper buying unsexed, straight run chicks expecting at least 50% to be females (which would be very lucky, as some have gotten many more males than females), and thinking the money spent caring and feeding for all the males and finding homes for all of them (which will be no easy task as almost no one wants cockerels even when they are free) will make getting the females you get worth it, and come out less expensive than buying chicks sexed female from MPC, I think you'll regret it, as I regret not buying the chicks I wanted sexed, because of their initial high cost ($22.50 to $28 each bantam depending on breed), instead of buying so many unsexed bantam chicks and ending up with so many cockerels that nobody wants. I still have 7 bantam (3 Sebright, 1 d'Uccle, 1 Wyandotte, 1 white Silkie and 1 OEG) and 1 Brabanter cockerels that nobody wants, and it's sad that 5 of them have lived indoors for their 5 months alive, have never been outdoors. I was lucky I was able to sell, cheaply, I think 10 cockerels, and just sold 2 Silkies that I don't know their gender but might also be male (which I let the buyer know), and was able to give away for free at least 10 cockerels, but still have those 8 cockerels left to find homes for. Taking care of and feeding all those cockerels have not been easy or cheap. I've spent a ton of money on hemp bedding and their food (expensive Scratch and Peck Organic Chick/Grower Starter and Grubbly's Little Pecks Chick/Grower Crumbles, grit, black soldier fly larvae, vegetables, etc.), so I'm almost sure that it would have been cheaper, as well as less work, to just buy the chicks I wanted sexed as pullets. The extra money charged for each chick that's sexed seems like a lot but I doubt is more than the amount of extra money I've spent on all the chicks I purchased unsexed that turned out to be male, the months of caring for them and feeding them have probably double the price to that of sexed pullets. Maybe if I've used cheaper bedding, and cheap feed that include a lot of gmo corn, soy and grain by-products/waste product and omitted the vegetables and treats it would have been cheaper, but still don't cover the amount of time spent caring for and trying to find homes for all the cockerels. So knowing what I know now after this experience, the next time I order chicks I'm buying them sexed as pullets, not as unsexed/straight run chicks.