How to Sex Silkies

[Little Baby Bean]

Here are a few photos of some of my birds when they were young, I know what their genders are now. For fun, see if you are able to tell at these young ages.
(you have a 50-50 chance of getting them right!)

I will give you the answers after you have guessed.View attachment 2857591View attachment 2857592View attachment 2857593View attachment 2857594
View attachment 2857595

1. cockerel?
2. pullet
3. pullet?
4. cockerel
5. cockerel
I am really bad with silkies so I this was all a BUNCH of guessing.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

1. cockerel?
2. pullet
3. pullet?
4. cockerel
5. cockerel
I am really bad with silkies so I this was all a BUNCH of guessing.

I’ll tell you after @Nicole_Hutchison tries.

 

[Little Baby Bean]

I’ll tell you after @Nicole_Hutchison tries.

Ok!

 

[Nicole_Hutchison]

Here are a few photos of some of my birds when they were young, I know what their genders are now. For fun, see if you are able to tell at these young ages.
(you have a 50-50 chance of getting them right!)
There are 5 different birds.

I will give you the answers after you have guessed.View attachment 2857591View attachment 2857592View attachment 2857593View attachment 2857594
View attachment 2857595

Ok let’s see how close I got:
1: female
2: male
3: female
4: male
5: female

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Ok let’s see how close I got:
1: female
2: male
3: female
4: male
5: female

Close!
1. female
2. male
3. female
4. female
5. male

It was a bit tricky, I admit. The 4th bird has a very wide comb, which many use to determine gender, but this can be misleading as this pullet demonstrates. The bird in the 5th photo has a single comb, but it is difficult to see in the photo.
You did great. I just wanted also to illustrate how hard it can be to tell when silkies are young. Keep practicing, you are on the right track.

Here are photos of the same birds as older juveniles and adults for comparison. I sold the pullet in the 4th photo, she is about 14 weeks old in this photo and also the blue cockerel, he is about 4 months old here.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

1. cockerel?
2. pullet
3. pullet?
4. cockerel
5. cockerel
I am really bad with silkies so I this was all a BUNCH of guessing.

Great try though! You just need more practice.

 

[Little Baby Bean]

Close!
1. female
2. male
3. female
4. female
5. male

It was a bit tricky, I admit. The 4th bird has a very wide comb, which many use to determine gender, but this can be misleading as this pullet demonstrates. The bird in the 5th photo has a single comb, but it is difficult to see in the photo.
You did great. I just wanted also to illustrate how hard it can be to tell when silkies are young. Keep practicing, you are on the right track.

Here are photos of the same birds as older juveniles and adults for comparison. I sold the pullet in the 4th photo, she is about 14 weeks old in this photo and also the blue cockerel, he is about 4 months old here.
View attachment 2857965View attachment 2857967View attachment 2857966View attachment 2857976View attachment 2857968

Wow I was way off!

 

[Nicole_Hutchison]

Close!
1. female
2. male
3. female
4. female
5. male

It was a bit tricky, I admit. The 4th bird has a very wide comb, which many use to determine gender, but this can be misleading as this pullet demonstrates. The bird in the 5th photo has a single comb, but it is difficult to see in the photo.
You did great. I just wanted also to illustrate how hard it can be to tell when silkies are young. Keep practicing, you are on the right track.

Here are photos of the same birds as older juveniles and adults for comparison. I sold the pullet in the 4th photo, she is about 14 weeks old in this photo and also the blue cockerel, he is about 4 months old here.
View attachment 2857965View attachment 2857967View attachment 2857966View attachment 2857976View attachment 2857968

This is great super helpful, thank you! Will keep doing research and trying to determine the gender of silkies!

 

[Nicole_Hutchison]

Wow I was way

Close!
1. female
2. male
3. female
4. female
5. male

It was a bit tricky, I admit. The 4th bird has a very wide comb, which many use to determine gender, but this can be misleading as this pullet demonstrates. The bird in the 5th photo has a single comb, but it is difficult to see in the photo.
You did great. I just wanted also to illustrate how hard it can be to tell when silkies are young. Keep practicing, you are on the right track.

Here are photos of the same birds as older juveniles and adults for comparison. I sold the pullet in the 4th photo, she is about 14 weeks old in this photo and also the blue cockerel, he is about 4 months old here.?
View attachment 2857965View attachment 2857967View attachment 2857966View attachment 2857976View attachment 2857968

The younger close up picture of #4 definitely looked like a male. SHE had that “look” that Roos normally have lol! That one threw me off. The older version of #5 you can clearly see the sex but younger version looked to me like a female.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

The younger close up picture of #4 definitely looked like a male. SHE had that “look” that Roos normally have lol! That one threw me off. The older version of #5 you can clearly see the sex but younger version looked to me like a female.

Yes exactly! That pullet kept me guessing for a while.
Point I was trying to make with some of these was it’s not easy. Even all the tricks in the book, you could still be wrong. If you note in the younger photo of this pullet, you’ll see her comb space is very wide but not raised at all. She is about 10 weeks old in this photo I believe.
Some males will present themselves early and begin to get a bit of a lumpy comb at about this age. Others you will not be able to tell until they are closer to four months of age. The advantage with the ones that you have, is some appear to be beardless. In the beardless silkies, males will usually develop wattles earlier than females. This should help you identify them.
In the bearded silkies, wattle formation is inhibited by the beard gene.You can see in the photo of my adult paint, very small wattles. These would be significantly larger if he was beardless.