Did you buy sexed Silkies from MyPetChicken.com and....

[Poulets De Cajun]

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The American Silkie Bantam Club was officially established in the 1920's. Since that time there have been THOUSANDS of Silkie breeders, whom I'm sure tried to figure out the secret to sexing day old Silkies to no avail. I find it completely amusing that ONE single company comes along and *POOF*, secret solved. Now had it been something new, where Silkies had only been invented say 5 years ago, that would be one thing. But with DECADES gone by, and no solution, I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe that they can just suddenly sex a Silkie..... entertaining perhaps, but extremely hard to believe.

 

[juliechick]

Well, I ordered two Silkie pullets and I got two pullets, so I would say your chances of getting females increases greatly by ordering from them. They aren't going to be 100% accurate, I'm sure. I've ordered 5 Cochin banties twice from Ideal and gotten 4 roosters and 1 hen each time! So, it could be worth the extra money MPC charges to at least increase your odds of getting pullets.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

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With only two pullets, and 50/50 odds, I'd say they just got lucky. Sorry I'm such a pessimist tonight, bad day I guess...

 

[chickenshagg]

Perhaps I would be money ahead if I just got a dozen hatching eggs inplace of ordering six Silkie Pullets from MPC. I did order six Delaware pullets and four EE pullets from MPC back in July. I got exactly that! No problems with any of them and I have been really happy with that order.

My wife wants Silkies so I told her that I would get her some in the spring. I even told her that I would build her a fancy Silkie house. I was looking at ordering from MPC. I also read the post by Cajun last week and got concerned about ordering sexed Silkies.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

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There are a couple of great Silkie breeders in your area.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I am not giving them a bad reputation. I bought from them. As I said in my post, someone else posted that it is not possible to sex silkies until they crow or lay and I was simply asking for people's experience who had paid for sexed birds like I did.

Sorry. I didn't mean to sound so nasty. I'm guessing it's possible to fairly accurately vent sex the chicks. Internal characteristics are less likely to lie, in my humble opinion.

You cannot vent sex bantams without injuring them. If they do sufficient DNA testing that they can get inexpensive pricing, then yes, they can accurately sex bantams, including silkies. However most places I've checked charge many times that $3 for DNA sexing. Has anyone ever asked MyPetChicken how they sex their bantams?

The OP never said she did not trust MyPetChicken. She said that she recently read that silkies cannot be sexed as chickens and is now wondering about the accuracy of the chicks she already received.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Go for it

Well, IMO, the next order should be for exactly 2 female silkies--teh ones you ALREADY paid for.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I'm glad I read this thread... won't be paying extra for sexed Silkies!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Only if you were planning on ordering anyway. I don't think they will just send ones to replace the roos because you have to order five.

In htat case they should refund her the $20 she paid for two pullet chicks.

 

[destiny_56085]

I know this was quite a few years ago, but to get DNA sexing tests on our parrots was at least $25 each. If they are only getting $10 for their chicks, I doubt they are going that route.

I have also heard that vent sexing bantams will also damage them for life.