Chicken Breed Focus - Silkie

[Sylvester017]

That male is a descendant of cross of two unrelated lines. I'm working on all my males having lighter feathers to start with to help sex them. I only get a few each hatch like that. They also tend to be the better looking males

Example is this
View attachment 1737279

Became the one on the right (sorry it's a molting picture)
View attachment 1737284

Absolutely GORGEOUS molting or not! I love that idea of using colors to help determine early sexing! Can you imagine what a breakthrough that will be?!

What about the dark eyeliner around the back of the female eyes and the darker face/head spotting -- think there's anything remotely possible in helping to determine female juveniles? It's a really strong trait in Welsummer chicks in helping to separate males from females. The females have the dark eyeliner line while it's very pale eyeliner in the male chicks. Plus the tops of the heads and backs of the females are deeper color stripes while the male chicks have much paler head/back stripes.

 

[Hinotori]

I marked identical chipmunk chicks one year with spots of Blukote so I could identify them into the future. I took pictures and marked eye markings to test. Some females had darker some lighter. The one with the most and darkest turned out to be male.

It hasn't been selected for to sex silkie chicks. Mainly because partridge isn't the most popular color, and that it's useless for other color varieties.

I think the males getting crest streamers in younger would help sex other colors earlier. Those long streamers seem to be unique to silkies. I've seen some really long streamers on roosters.

 

[Katlinalyssa]

How perfect is this little black silkies position with my little ones dinosaur t shirt?

 

[Sylvester017]

I marked identical chipmunk chicks one year with spots of Blukote so I could identify them into the future. I took pictures and marked eye markings to test. Some females had darker some lighter. The one with the most and darkest turned out to be male.

It hasn't been selected for to sex silkie chicks. Mainly because partridge isn't the most popular color, and that it's useless for other color varieties.

I think the males getting crest streamers in younger would help sex other colors earlier. Those long streamers seem to be unique to silkies. I've seen some really long streamers on roosters.

Ahhhhh -- so you already tested my eyeliner theory! I should've known you'd been way ahead of me LOL! And I'm shocked that Partridge isn't a popular Silkie color -- they are one of the prettiest markings on Silkies and because of that are easier to tell them apart from other Partridge in the flock (at least to me!) Silkies are the BEST!

 

[pointsalamander]

Their little feathers are coming in nicely... and the orange isn't as bright as it looked at first... I should probably jsut stop guessing and run the DNA. I'm almost 100% sure that the little dark haired chick is a girl (a tiny girly girl at that).

 

[ronkonkoma]

https://www.facebook.com/southportfarms/
I absolutely love Silkies. I got my first silkies in 2014. I decided to hatch and sell and had the state come and do a blood test and swab of all my birds so i can ship. I’m at the point where I am having a hard time sharing lol. I’m also working with satins and bantam white polish. I think Silkies are the best breed for children because they rarely fly, are easy to pick up and often just sit on our laps and hang out

 

[Katlinalyssa]

Starting to get fluffy

 

[suecharp]

I have 2 silkies that were sold to me as hens (supposedly confirmed via dna) but I’m wondering if my black one is actually a roo. The crest feathers look very different than the other one and I swear this morning it was trying to make a crowing sound in answer to my other silkie roo. This one as about 8 weeks and currently living inside until the weather here starts getting a bit warmer. Can anyone tell me if this looks like a roo or is it still too early to tell? I’m hoping it’s not as I already have a black roo and I don’t need 2 as I only have 4 hens. Thanks in advance!

 

[NorthernChick1]

Is it normal for them not to lay AT ALL, like I might of gotten 2 or 3 eggs out of her and she is about 10 months old.... silkies I have 2 hens and 1 roo in my flock of 11 chickens. They aren't laying...

 

[ronkonkoma]