14 week silkies gender

[Eevee]

Hi, I am a new memeber to this forum. I joined when we started building our coop. Thats all done and now we have our chickens!

We got 4 silkie straight runs back in april. We have given 2 away that were crowing at 10 weeks as we are in the city and only allowed pullets/hens. I know its still early for silkies, but I was hoping I could get some guesses on these two 14 week olds.
Popcorn is the frizzled white/paint? Coloured one and the greyish/black one is blueberry. Thanks

 

[bantamluv]

i would suggest that they're both pullets.. but i could be wrong. they don't have too much comb development and that's usually the first sign of a male. also, roosters and hens have distinctly different feathers. looking at the pictures, the two silkies don't seem to have the rooster feathering that generally you begin to see at this age and even before. i have a bantam silkie who's 12 weeks and he already has shown more comb development and rooster plumage. typically, when you have a young cockerel, he'll start to show signs of his gender at maybe 2-8 weeks depending on his personality. i've had roosters crow at two weeks of age and others crow at a whopping five months!! it all depends on how "rooster-y" they are. when you're examining the feathers to tell the sex of a bird, you want to look close to the skin to observe any new pin feathers coming in, which are often the tell-tale signs you'll need. a pullet's new feathers will be rather dull in color, more like a matte/shiny surface, and have rounded or slightly triangular ends. a cockerel will be the opposite, displaying glossy, colorful feathers that have sharp, pointed edges, especially in the sickle, saddle, and hackle areas. below i'll attach three photos of a hen and rooster's plumage, which may be an aid to you if you can examine your chick's feathers. the first two are rooster's plumage. you can see the pointed tips and the glossy appearance. the one below those is the plumage of a hen, with a duller coat and rounded, soft-looking feathers. i do realize that in silkies it's a great deal harder to tell due to the fur-like appearance of the feathers, but i assure you if you bird has rooster plumage, you'll still be able to tell anyways- he'll still have glossy and sharper feathers. i hope i could be of some help to you, and best of luck with your birds!!

 

[Eevee]

I am a first time chicken owner so Thankyou for all the information and the pictures. It was really helpful. 2 of our silkies were crowing, but they had much larger combs. We are hoping they are pullets but we have relatives who have a farm and will take them if they are cockerel.

 

[BlueBaby]

Also with the male silkie's, they grow those streamer's at the back of the fluff on the head.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

At the moment, you appear to have two pullets there!

I generally don't trust a Silkies sex based on appearance until they are around 6 months.

I have a blue that I got as a pullet but now I'm thinking otherwise.

 

[Eevee]

I was lucky with the other two silkies we got that they were crowing so early and were showing streamers. The grey one is smaller(both comb and physical size) then the white one. Time will tell. We have a home for them either way, but we are hoping they are girls. Silkies are just so tricky. We also got 3 sweedish flower hens and by 6 weeks you could definitely tell the males just by comb size and redness. The silkies I keep going back and forth on.

 

[Matilda Belle]

Today you have pullets. Now tomorrow who knows! lol

 

[NCMtnchickenman]

Sorry to jump into this thread but these streamer feathers... does anyone have a photo of this? I have some white silkies and I’d love to see if I can sex them yet looking for these feathers.

 

[Lisa G.]

i completely stole this from the internet but you can see them here.

 

[NCMtnchickenman]

Thanks Lisa! I’m going to look for that soon as I can get home