Sexing your Silkies (PICTURES AND TIPS - Updated July-5-12)

388chick · Oct 5, 2013

Our first silkie egg today! Woohoo!

Aaisha · Oct 9, 2013

i am wanting silkies soo bad

dorothymcd · Oct 12, 2013

I read your story about your barn and I cried. I'm so sorry for your loss. That must of been so painful to witness OMG i cannot imagine... I got on this link because I just hatched 4 silkies and 1 polish was was looking for answers to sex them. I clicked on your link to see if these was more and didnt get past the first page. I wanted to share my condolences...
If you have a facebook account id love to connect with you, maybe you can help me sex these little ones early...

MinBH2O · Oct 13, 2013

Born 6/5/2013. Started crowing this week 10/513.

chickenlover594 · Oct 26, 2013

aoxa said:
I really think we need a thread describing key factors that are used to foretell the sex of their silkies. I know there is a thread for sexing EE's, but have yet to find one describing the difference between one of the hardest to sex breeds.. So many people are asking if their silkie is a hen or a rooster on here every day, and I have heard from silkie breeders that by the age of 3 months old you should be able to tell determine the sex of your silkie with ease. Please feel free to send me photos of your cockerels & pullets. I would love to include some of your pictures in the original post /img/smilies/smile.png SIGNS YOU HAVE A ROO: #1: Streamers coming out of the back of their crest. These streamers will begin to develop between the ages of 4-6 months. Picture of my Roo's crest. **Note: I'm noticing streamers in his offspring as young as 8 weeks old** hen **Edited** I have chicks as young as 8 weeks old that have a very round feminine crest** #2: Generally Silkie males will hold their bodies much more upright than silkie pullets. Rooster Year old hen #3: Silkie roosters will have long hackle feathers which are rough in texture.

#4: MOST Silkie roosters (Not talking SQ stock here) should have a larger walnut comb than a hen when mature. **Bearded silkies have the big poofy beard under the beak and should have barely no waddles (or the mature boys will have very little ones you can barely see ) where non-bearded will start to grow waddles pretty early (boys and girls will develop noticeable waddles with the non-bearded (clean faced) variety) **

Besides the obvious - roosters crow and hens lay eggs. Are there any other signs anyone would like to contribute? NOTE: These are all visual determinations of the sex difference. There are many behavioural aspects to sexing silkies as well. Not sure if I should get into that yet or not /img/smilies/tongue.png EDIT TO ADD BEHAVIOURAL SIGNS: Remember, I have limited experience with silkies. I am just stating what I see between my pullets and my rooster, and what I've read online. I do spend WAY too much time reading about chickens. /img/smilies/roll.png If you have time (on a weekend or a day off), sit outside with your silkies and watch their antics. You will soon begin to notice behaviours in the boys that you will not notice in the girls. *Do not sex them as chicks based on behaviour.* #1 Cockerels will be on watch a lot of the time. Even my young cockerel (4 months old, though not a silkie) has stood watch from a very young age. The boys are more social than the girls. If they are with others their own age they will most likely be head of the flock. If you have more than one rooster, one will be Alpha, one will be Beta. I only have two roosters, both get along great. My silkie is my obvious Alpha rooster. My Barred Rock cockerel is Beta. Steve will not permit Jagger to breed any of 'his' hens. I'd like to see him try to mate my silkie pullets /img/smilies/lol.png Poor girls.. #2 Silkie roosters start crowing (on average) between 4 and 6 months old. Don't let anyone tell you their crows are meek compared to that of their standard counterpart. My silkie rooster is LOUD. #3 Silkie boys have a natural instinct to protect their girls (as do 99% of other roosters). Most silkie roosters are docile (up to a degree), but will do things like.. Flare their hackle feathers. ** Someone mentioned that their hens have done this, however, I have never noticed my silkies doing it. My other breeds do. Not my silkies**

as so. I have yet to see any of my female silkies do this. I spend WAY too much time with my chickens /img/smilies/gig.gif I am out watching my chickens almost full days on weekends (weather permitting), and from after work until dark. I hope to one day soon own a small hobby farm. /img/smilies/fl.gif #4 Normally the lowest on your pecking order will be bullied by nearly every other chicken besides the rooster. My rooster is more apt to peck the head hen than the underdog. He will break up fights between the hens. It doesn't take much of his assertion to end the squabbles.

#5 You will notice "tidbitting" from ONLY roosters **or hens with chicks, but if you have a hen with chicks, you obviously already know they are hens and not roosters!** They will make a strange call that I've only heard come out of my roos. They will pick up a piece of food, drop it, pick it up, drop it, etc. until they have the girls paying attention enough to come over and claim the piece of food. Youngest I've seen this is 4 months, but that's just my experience.

They will also do this in attempt to mate even if they have nothing around them. It's sneaky.. /img/smilies/lol.png #6 Of course mating.. This behaviour can start as early as 3 months old, but for those roosters that are not alpha, it may be much later. My rooster will drop a wing and shuffle around the hen until she submits or runs away. This behaviour is best observed in the morning when you first let them out. Mating Dance Here is a video of a rooster doing the mating 'dance' as many call it. Do not let him do this to you. I most definitely would not let him do this to my kid. This is not my rooster. Just a good video showing the dance only a ROOSTER will do. **Note: I was informed that some gamey types of hens may do this wing cutting if they are without a rooster in the flock. Just as some hens may crow. It is definitely not as common as a rooster doing it, but it could happen** Hormones RAGE in the early morning /img/smilies/roll.png I will have to take a video of my rooster doing his morning activities. I will not tolerate aggressiveness towards the girls. He is such a great rooster, so I normally don't need to intervene. Please feel free to send me photos of your cockerels & pullets. I would love to include some of your pictures in the original post /img/smilies/smile.png Some extra notes: Sonoran Silkies: Longer feathers = better quality silkie. Female colour area is breast; male colour areas are shoulders, wing bar, saddle.

Photo courtesy of artsyrobin (thanks!)

Thanks a lot for the info. I was hoping you could help me out. I have a pair of silkies both of them crow but I did a little research and found out that silkies hen are know to crow (I have a bantam hen who does that too). So my silkies, the rooster have a longer tail and is bigger and have a tall posture. The hen is more docile and would make sounds that hens normally do. Here are some pictures to help you identify whether is a hen or not thanks!!!

This is the hen, little comb and lots of feathers in the head

This is the rooster, taller and has a bigger comb.

pine-nut · Nov 11, 2013

Thank you! That is incredibly detailed and helpful! My only silkie is 5 weeks old, so I can't tell yet. It does "purr" when I carry it around with me, so I'm guessing it might be a pullet. It's impossible to tell at this age. The last Lagshan roo was easy. He started trying to make a strangled gargling rat stepped on under water noise by the time he was 10 days out of the egg. Of course, he announces loudly to the whole world that he is the king of the flock. I hatched this silkie in an incubator, and I don't think it is ever going to be outside with the rest of them. It might be too cold or the others are too big for such a tiny thing to be out there.

sillychicks123 · Dec 10, 2013

Love this thread! Wondering if I could have some help sexing my 4 month old smooth silkie

I see saddle feathers, and he/she holds themselves upright alot more that the girls, but the thing that confuses me is that he/she hasn't really started to developer a comb, and it's crest says girl. Any thoughts??