Is there a way to tell w/Silkies? Posted in the wrong section before.

[buzymom13]

I've got 5 silkies from TSC. They are about 5 days old now. All of them have double row (not sure of term) wing feathers. Does this kind of sexing work for silkies?

I'm new to silkies so need some advice. (I've had chickens for over a year now but not silkies)

Thankx!

 

[pdsavage]

Nope...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

THE WING FEATHER SPROUT PATTERN SORT
The A & M Hatchery, like others, stocks two popular hybrid chickens—the meaty Cornish White Rocks and the super layers known as Hi-Line White Leghorns—that have been specially developed to allow sexing from the pattern made by the feather sprouts on their wing tips at hatch.Two chicks at a time, one wing in each hand, Lyle spreads out the wing tips with his fingers and reads the code . . . which is just as regular as visual Morse. If the bird is a cockerel, the feather sprouts are all the same length and make a tall, straight bow line. A pullet, in contrast, shows an alternating tall boxshort box pattern.


THE OCCURRENCE OF WING FEATHERS SORT
Sorting on the basis of sprout patterns is possible only for chicks of specially selected hybrid stock . . . and carefully controlled liaisons aren't characteristic of the casual homestead chicken yard. There is, however, another wing-feather sort that any fumble-fingered back-to-the-lander can employ to sex his own brood. This is the simplest and easiest non-vent system, and also the one that can be used with the widest variety of flocks. Here's how it works:

Any Mediterranean breed rooster (all varieties of Minorca, Leghorn, Spanish, Andalusian, Ancona and Buttercup) let loose with any American breed, Asiatic breed or English Orpington hen (includes all varieties of Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Java, Dominique, Rhode Island Red, Rhode Island White, Buckeye, Chantecler, Jersey Black Giant, Lamona, New Hampshire, Brahma, Cochin, Langshan and the Orpingtons) produces pullets that hatch out with their wing feathers well developed and clearly in sight. By the end of the first week, the small female chick even has a squirt of tail. Cockerels hatch out either with no wing feathers or with just a touch of sprout at the tip. You have about a week and a half to make the distinction . . . the rate of feathering evens up after that time.


http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustaina … hicks.aspx

Feather Sexing

Feather sexing requires maintaining 2 breeder flocks for the parents and one breeder flock for the chicks. (Two flocks would work, but this is easiest way to explain it.)

The breeder flock for the female line must be slow feathering only, and the breeder flock for the male line must be fast feathering only. To breed for the chicks you would then cross the slow feathering females with the fast feathering males. The resulting offspring would be the opposite of their parents. Females fast feathering and the males slow feathering. Some hatcheries just switch the males on the mother and father lines. The resulting offspring of one flock would be feather sexable and the offspring from the other flock would be sold as straight run. (Remember that the mother must be slow feathering and father fast feathering for feather sexing to work).

Most hatcheries just buy the slow feathering females and fast feathering males or simply ship in hatching eggs from someone already set up.

Most of your common white and brown egg layers and a few rare breeds are feather sexable. Probably all chickens have the genes for for fast and slow feathering, so it would be just a matter of culling for this trait until you have two lines that breed true--one for each trait.

Because the males' feather grow slower, they will be shorter and of equal length . Females' feathers will be not only longer but some feathers will be much longer than the others (sort of a row of long and a row of short feathers

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKFeathSex.html