Can anyone tell me the gender and or breed of my little 4 week old silkie cross darling?

[Brookie-09]

Hi everyone, I am relatively new to owning chickens and am very curious if anyone can shed some light on the possible gender of my 4 week old silkie cross?
Father of this little chick was a silkie and the mother was either a polish or a Japanese bantam.
Baby has black skin and has the 5 toes like a silkie with feathered feet.

 

[NatJ]

I think it's too early to tell gender.

If you are trying to figure out which hen was the mother, you could post photos of the father and both possible mothers, and someone might be able to tell. Sometimes it's obvious, because certain combinations of parent colors produce certain chick colors, and sometimes it is impossible to tell.

Regarding your title, the "breed" of your chick is Silkie Cross.

 

[Bertram]

Silkies are notoriously hard to sex and 4 weeks is a little early but I'm leaning towards pullet.

 

[Brookie-09]

Thank you both for your input, I truly appreciate it. I am hopeless at understanding the genetics, but have read through a few threads. Is it true that if you breed a dark skinned rooster to a light skinned hen, any offspring produced that have dark skin are female? Sorry if that makes no sense

 

[NatJ]

I am hopeless at understanding the genetics, but have read through a few threads.

Yes, it can be quite confusing

Is it true that if you breed a dark skinned rooster to a light skinned hen, any offspring produced that have dark skin are female? Sorry if that makes no sense

Yes, that is basically true.

There is a gene that works that way, but there are also a few other genes that can cause the skin to look dark or light in other cases, and that sometimes causes mixups.

Your individual chickens might have the right genes for their breed, or they might not. Photos might help with sorting that out.

For the breeds you are working with:
--Japanese are supposed to have light skin
--Polish are supposed to have dark skin
--Silkies are supposed to have dark skin, with other genes making it even darker

If your chickens do have the right genes for their breeds, you should get light-legged sons from the Japanese hen, dark-legged daughters from the Japanese hen, and dark-legged chicks of both genders from the Polish hen.

 

[Brookie-09]

Yes, it can be quite confusing


Yes, that is basically true.

There is a gene that works that way, but there are also a few other genes that can cause the skin to look dark or light in other cases, and that sometimes causes mixups.

Your individual chickens might have the right genes for their breed, or they might not. Photos might help with sorting that out.

For the breeds you are working with:
--Japanese are supposed to have light skin
--Polish are supposed to have dark skin
--Silkies are supposed to have dark skin, with other genes making it even darker

If your chickens do have the right genes for their breeds, you should get light-legged sons from the Japanese hen, dark-legged daughters from the Japanese hen, and dark-legged chicks of both genders from the Polish hen.

Thank you so, so much. That makes sense to me. I will see if I can find some pictures of the parents, as I am not the owner of them. Dad is definitely the silkie but not sure about the mother.

 

[Brookie-09]

Potential mothers

 

[Brookie-09]

Father

 

[NatJ]

Potential mothers

Father

That rooster and the Polish hens could produce dark-legged chicks of either gender. I can't see the leg color on the Japanese to tell about them. But with the Polish as possible mothers, we can't trust the chick's dark leg color to tell anything about gender. (A chick with light legs would have to be male, and would have a Japanese mother.)

Given that the father is white, I don't think we're going to have much luck figuring out who the mother was. Some white chickens produce white chicks with EVERY other possible parent, and that might be true of this Silkie rooster. I think he would produce at least some white chicks with any possible hen.

When the chick grows up, you might be able to tell a bit more by things like how much crest it has (more crest is likely with two crested parents, less crest is likely with a crested/non-crested cross). The body shape may tell something too (Japanese have those really high tails, while Polish are less so.) But you may never be completely certain.

 

[Brookie-09]

Siblings of my baby (same hatch batch)