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At 4-5 weeks, they will need heat at this time of year--heck, even I put jacket on if I'm going out at night. I have babies who are a couple of weeks old on the back porch with a heat lamp; I have a couple who are a bit older than yours with their mama, and they don't seem to snuggle under her as much as they did just a couple of weeks ago. If you open out their wings, you will see that they still have lots of feathers to grow. At 4-5 weeks, the only way to determine gender is DNA testing. Silkies tend to matue more slowly than many other breeds, so don't expect crowing any earlier than 3-4 months, and it is really more likely at 5-8 months. Although I had one boy who was a good 10 months old when he suddenly went from looking like a demure sweet pullet into a raunchy, crowing cockerel.
Thanks, SS. I think I'll start putting them in the tractor tomorrow and use a heat lamp at night with a little brooder box that they can snuggle up in. They do seem very immature compared to the other chicks I got from Ideal at the same time, a bunch of packing peanuts and Cornish X, all of whom have been out for weeks and are now actually out with the adults in the coop, getting along just fine.
