Need help with Silkies

[Tyandmacsmom]

Good morning. I just joined the forum, and wow do I love all the information! That being said, I'm pretty new to having my own chickens. (My mom always had some running around, but never silkies.) Can you help me figure out what I might have in my small flock? I'm not sure how hold they are. I bought them at Tractor supply in the middle of May, and they were pretty big. They were fully feathered out. Thanks for any help or guesses I can get!!

This is my little flock, or at least most of the silkies I have.

This is Mama, the only definite rooster we have. We thought he was a she, hence the name Mama. He's big, and super friendly. He was the perfect girl til we saw him trying to crow.

So, here are the chickens that I need help sexing. I'll post my opinion, and see if anyone agrees? I have no actual experience, so it's just guesses between the difference in how they look and behave, and what I have learned here.

Hen 1:

Hen 2:

Hen 3:

Hen??? 4:

Hen???5:

Rooster1:

Hen 6:

Rooster2:

Thanks, I appreciate anyone's opinions
Miranda

 

[mljohnson05]

From Missouri and

Top Picture helps a little more cause you can see their body posture and full view better...based on that I see at least 3 Roo, maybe a 4th....

As for age...It is really hard to tell...I would say at least 2-3 months old....Silkies are the HARDEST breed to ID gender until they either crow or lay an egg...and that can take 6 months or more (if you have a really go show bird type quality)...I have had some fool me in both directions.

May I ask if you LOCK them up in the coop at night, cause your fencing looks like plastic and if that is so they will NOT be safe unless they are locked up....Silkies cannot fly, so are unable to get away from predators.


Best Wishes,
Laura

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

They are not locked up at night. We have five dogs; nothing comes in our yard.

And the dogs don't bother them, so I'm not too overly concerned with locking them up. We live in a very small town, there aren't random animals roaming, and our cat even gets in the pen with them without any issues. We are planning to build a coop for them sometime in August, but I'm still deciding what I want to do (style wise) for that. We had a metal pen set up, but we had a wicked storm and a HUGE tree fell across their pen/yard. Our little Tikes house (where they were sleeping) held up to the weight of the tree, but the fence did not. (I had to put up a make shift fixer while my husband was out of town, hence the plastic. I'm not very big, and trying to do something like that alone was NOT an easy thing!) The chickens actually love where they are set up now, a lot more than where I had them. They aren't going to like it when they get their permanent shelter, I have a feeling!

Here's the mess of the tree:

 

[mljohnson05]

just be careful....I have seen MANY MANY people say... "we don't have animals, and we have dogs..." Then a month later their chickens all end up dead.....I would hate for that to happen to you all, esp. since you have human kids that love the chickens.....Silkies need the most protection because they cannot fly and they are not the smartest bird an will sometimes sit in the rain and get sick cause they do not know better......

Best Wishes,
Laura

 

[Tyandmacsmom]

Thanks.

They are kind of dumb...they ALWAYS stay in the rain! My hubby has to "okay" my project idea before he'll commit to building it, but it is definitely going to be done soon. I need to do a little more research on what is best for northern Chickens.