Chick gender

[xish]

All of my chicks were females when I first feather checked them and have had their wings growing in very quickly and at the exact same rate. But now it appears that I have 2 roosters(one pictured, the other has a little taller comb but is only pink at the bottom). They're all silkiexcochin so some of them have silkie combs and are impossible to check. But is there any way that their combs are just looking like males for another reason? they're 3 weeks old.

 

[StarMeKritten]

Feather sexing is not accurate unless that was something specific that you were breeding for. You most likely have both males and females. Which parent was the silkie?

 

[xish]

The father. But they're all growing cochin feathers

 

[StarMeKritten]

Silkie feathering is recessive, so that's to be expected. If you cross the chicks back to a silkie later, you'll see some with silkie feathers again.

Since the silkie is the father, you might be able to tell gender based on what color their legs are. The pullets should have dark colored legs like the silkie father and cockerels should have light colored legs like mom. I tried it last year with different breeds (ameraucana rooster over welsummer hens) and it worked. I have heard that this should work with a silkie cochin cross as long as the silkie is the rooster..

 

[xish]

Thank you for the help. I'll give it a try

 

[flowerchild88]

they could still be pullets, they are still really young... give it a little time i had 4 that i thought were roos early on and only one of them actually was

 

[BantamLover21]

So far, they all look like pullets. They're too young to tell for sure, though.

 

[Wyandottes7]

So far, they all look like pullets. They're too young to tell for sure, though.

Agreed.