6 week old Silkies: Boys or Girls? Bearded or Non-Bearded? Colors?

[tlynns]

Hello everyone! We recieved 5 of these silkies (along with others!) in the mail about 6 weeks ago, and are now starting to see the signs of if we have pullets or cockerels between all of them! I decided to post on here to see what some other opinions are. Any help is appreciated, even if it just your best guess!

Is there any way to tell if the babies will be bearded or non bearded at 6 weeks? When we ordered them, it said that the chicks would be a mix of non-bearded and bearded chicks....

Also, Chick #4 was supposedly a gray silkie when we ordered him/her. Is this a real color? It does have the overall appearance of gray vs lavender/self blue, but the way it looks also bears resemblance to a partridge silkie... any ideas on this would be very helpful!

My final question is the difference between red and buff silkies. We ordered one of each, Chicks #1 and #2, but to me they both look about the same color! At days old, Chick #1 look slightly darker, making me believe it was the red one, but now they are starting to even out. The only way to tell them apart at first glance is that Chick #1, Cinnamon, has heavily feathered legs compared to Chick #2, Marmalade.

Thank you in advance!

Chick #1: Red/Buff Silkie, Cinnamon

Chick #2: Red/Buff Silkie, Marmalade

Chick #3: Black Silkie, Maui

Chick #4: Gray silkie, Cinder

Chick #5: Partridge Silkie, Sixlet (It has 6 toes on one foot)

Thanks again!

 

[JedJackson]

They're all non-bearded. I believe you have 3 boys and 2 girls, but it's very early, so things could change.

Chick 1- buff cockerel
Chick 2- buff, probably a cockerel, but it's more uncertain than #1
Chick 3- maybe it's because of the glare, but it looks more like a blue than a black in the photo. Likely a pullet.
Chick 4- gray is a rare color variety of Silkies. I think this bird fits the bill. It is likely a pullet.
Chick 5- Partridge. I'm leaning cockerel, but this one could go either way.

Your best bet is to post again with updated pictures when they are 8 or 9 weeks old. They are very pretty, but the crests are very small, so probably just pet quality, but again, time will tell.

 

[drumstick diva]

Really like the first chick and the gray one. I'm not even going to guess at gender. Silkies are extremely difficult to sex early (before 4-5 mos. of age) and sometimes not until they crow or lay eggs.

Any early guesses would have a 50-50 chance of being right or wrong, so you probably wouldn't do worse if you guessed yourself. If you want to be certain of gender, you have to dig in your heels and wait.

 

[tlynns]

They're all non-bearded. I believe you have 3 boys and 2 girls, but it's very early, so things could change.

Chick 1- buff cockerel
Chick 2- buff, probably a cockerel, but it's more uncertain than #1
Chick 3- maybe it's because of the glare, but it looks more like a blue than a black in the photo. Likely a pullet.
Chick 4- gray is a rare color variety of Silkies. I think this bird fits the bill. It is likely a pullet.
Chick 5- Partridge. I'm leaning cockerel, but this one could go either way.

Your best bet is to post again with updated pictures when they are 8 or 9 weeks old. They are very pretty, but the crests are very small, so probably just pet quality, but again, time will tell.

Really like the first chick and the gray one. I'm not even going to guess at gender. Silkies are extremely difficult to sex early (before 4-5 mos. of age) and sometimes not until they crow or lay eggs.

Any early guesses would have a 50-50 chance of being right or wrong, so you probably wouldn't do worse if you guessed yourself. If you want to be certain of gender, you have to dig in your heels and wait.

Thank you for these great responses! I realize that it may be a little early, and I will post more photos in a couple of weeks to try and do a "second guess". I know silkies seem to "change genders" so quickly when they are young! Do you have any opinions on if the first two are red or buff? Is red even a color?

 

[JedJackson]

Thank you for these great responses! I realize that it may be a little early, and I will post more photos in a couple of weeks to try and do a "second guess". I know silkies seem to "change genders" so quickly when they are young! Do you have any opinions on if the first two are red or buff? Is red even a color?

They look buff at this point. I've never raised that color of Silkies, so it's possible they'll get darker later on if they were sold as red or red buff. I assume red is a color variety of Silkies, but don't know it for a fact. I did find one photo of what purported to be a red Silkie, and it is darker than your two.

 

[tlynns]

Update! These Silkies are 10 weeks old now and 4 of the 5 have revealed their genders! Both 1 and 2 ended up being buff... no reds!
Chick 1: Cockerel
Chick 2: Cockerel
Chick 3: Pullet
Chick 4: Pullet
Chick 5: Unknown (New thread about this little one! https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/patridge-silkie-boy-or-girl.1257081/ )