New chicks questions about egg vs crow timing

[yeye5]

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I have 4 eight week old chicks of mixed breed. I know their exact age as they were hatched at a friend's house and I saw them on their first day!
My silkie couple also hatched 4 chicks, that are 7 weeks old.

Two of the standard size chicks look to be cockerels, though I'm not sure yet. The other 2 look to be pullets. What kind of time range am I looking at before anyone crows or lays an egg?
Also do cockerels begin to crow at the same time that pullets beginning to lay?

I also have 4 seven week old silkie chicks hatched from my beautiful silkie pair.
I believe silkie timing is different than standard size?
Approximately when should I begin to see the silkie chicks either crow or lay?
They are so confusing to sex!

I'm blessed in that whatever genders they are, I'm able to keep them all (and I am keeping them all) so I'm not worried, Just Very Curious.

 

[Braxton Brigade]

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I have 4 eight week old chicks of mixed breed. I know their exact age as they were hatched at a friend's house and I saw them on their first day!
My silkie couple also hatched 4 chicks, that are 7 weeks old.

Two of the standard size chicks look to be cockerels, though I'm not sure yet. The other 2 look to be pullets. What kind of time range am I looking at before anyone crows or lays an egg?
Also do cockerels begin to crow at the same time that pullets beginning to lay?

I also have 4 seven week old silkie chicks hatched from my beautiful silkie pair.
I believe silkie timing is different than standard size?
Approximately when should I begin to see the silkie chicks either crow or lay?
They are so confusing to sex!

I'm blessed in that whatever genders they are, I'm able to keep them all (and I am keeping them all) so I'm not worried, Just Very Curious.

Most breeds will begin laying between 18-25 weeks old. Since they are mixing you can expect eggs by about 22 weeks, cockerels can begin crowing as early as a few days old, I had a game bantam that crowed at 1 week old.

Most crow between 10-18 weeks old, I had a barred rock that didn't crow until he was 22 weeks old. The males matures much faster than the females, cockerels will begin to try and mount the pullets around 15 weeks old, the pullets usually aren't ready to actually breed until they are close to laying eggs. They will begin to squat down for the boys at that time, they also tend to start listening to the cockerel more so around that age.

Post some pics of the non silkie chicks and I can tell you the sex. Silkies are very hard to sex and tend to mature slowly, but generally you should get eggs at approx 22 weeks more or less.

 

[yeye5]

Thanks very much! This is great info. I'm literally taking notes!

Above is Ollie, who I believe is Olivia (if not then Ollie is Oliver).


This is Taz.


This is Ernie.


And this is Bert.

These pics are from last week. If you need more plz let me know.

 

[Braxton Brigade]

Thanks very much! This is great info. I'm literally taking notes!

Above is Ollie, who I believe is Olivia (if not then Ollie is Oliver).


This is Taz.


This is Ernie.


And this is Bert.

These pics are from last week. If you need more plz let me know.

The one at the very top seems to be the only that might be a pullet

. Do you believe that ollie is a ee mix?

 

[yeye5]

The one at the very top seems to be the only that might be a pullet

. Do you believe that ollie is a ee mix?

Can you tell me plz what visuals you're basing your opinion on? I'm trying to learn as I go and it would be so helpful.
I'm not sure since they are mixed breed. The friend I got the 4 from has not told me he's seen any odd colored eggs...
What else could I observe to tell? Obviously, when she starts laying, that will be the tell tale sign...
The hen that hatched the eggs sat on a clutch in a nest several hens shared.
His hens are: Delaware/mix, a couple of Barred Rock, Jersey Giant, and a couple of white color mixed breed.
His roosters are: Barred rock, My new roo, Coco Loco who is bright orange colored buff, a white leghorn. I might be forgetting one.
Are Easter Eggers created from a mix of any of those breeds?

And re Taz, I've been told that Taz is likely pullet due to the pale comb and stance. What are you looking at/looking for on her/him to assess.
I'm sorry for asking so many questions. I'm just really excited to be learning

 

[yeye5]

BTW, none of the hens or roosters in his flock look like Ollie!

 

[Braxton Brigade]

Can you tell me plz what visuals you're basing your opinion on? I'm trying to learn as I go and it would be so helpful.
I'm not sure since they are mixed breed. The friend I got the 4 from has not told me he's seen any odd colored eggs...
What else could I observe to tell? Obviously, when she starts laying, that will be the tell tale sign...
The hen that hatched the eggs sat on a clutch in a nest several hens shared.
His hens are: Delaware/mix, a couple of Barred Rock, Jersey Giant, and a couple of white color mixed breed.
His roosters are: Barred rock, My new roo, Coco Loco who is bright orange colored buff, a white leghorn. I might be forgetting one.
Are Easter Eggers created from a mix of any of those breeds?

And re Taz, I've been told that Taz is likely pullet due to the pale comb and stance. What are you looking at/looking for on her/him to assess.
I'm sorry for asking so many questions. I'm just really excited to be learning

I just suspected EE because she has a pattern that is quite common amongst EE hens. She's probably just a barnyard mix then.

The main way to tell if chicks are male is fast growing combs, attitude and color of their combs. Easter eggers are created by crossbreeding a blue/green layer to another blue/green producing bird. For instance, you can do marans X blue layer for olive egger chicks. Or rooster hatched from blue/green egg X hen that lays any color eggs, offspring can lay any colored eggs. I took a closer look at Taz, that could be a pullet as well, so Ollie and Taz are possibly little hens.

Ernie was black with a white dot on his head as a young chick wasn't he? I believe he was the jersey giants egg and fertilized by the Barred Rock. Those pink legs are crazy.

 

[yeye5]

Both Taz and Ollie have very light combs compared to the nest-mates, Ernie and Bert.
There were several chicks in this hatch that looked similar to Bert. Reading about sexlink characteristics, and also wanting more pullets than cockerels in order to maintain a balanced flock, I picked Bert who has the smallest white dot on his head.
If the white dot, and size of the dot are sure indicators, then all of the BRs were male (still are of course, just they've gone to their new homes).
Bert also had, as a day old-week old chick, the biggest white butt I've ever seen! He was just too cute to pass up.
Taz always had the light fawn coloring and the beautiful black "eye-liner" and was completely unique among the rest of the chicks. At about 2-3 weeks she began getting beautifully marked wing feathers too. (I'll have to post a pic of her wings!).
Ollie and one other chick started all dark brown. With time those amazing feathers came in!
I adore all of them.
All this does is motivate me to get a few more pullets to balance out the youngsters.