Can you tell the gender this way?

[racuda]

I have some Silkie chicks and some Silkie eggs arriving today.

Since is is so hard to tell a Silkie's sex, what about letting THEM tell you? Can you tell the young, pre-crowing roos by their squabbles?

 

[speckledhen]

Nope. Both sexes spar, boys with girls, girls with girls, boys with boys. It's the nature of pecking order.

 

[racuda]

Yes, I've seen my young Cochins do this at just a few weeks of age. The thing about Silkies though is that I've heard it said that many times you have to wait for an egg or a crow to tell. And that could take 6 months. Isn't the pecking order determined long before that?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I rarely get eggs from 6 month old silkies--8-10 is more normal. Occasionally over a year.

I have adult birds (as in more than a year old--some several years old) who routinly spar with each other--certainly male to male, but also female to female and female to male.