New peep here 🐥❤️

[Home of Peeps]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to explore and hang out. Silky are a great breed.

Thank you and absolutely, this forum is exactly what I needed. And yes they are, I adore them so much!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

I have been breeding and raising silkies for many years and there's no way to get good at sexing them. All I can do is guess and I'm always 50% right!

At 3 months, once in a blue moon, one will crow. Usually that's around 4 months. About 4 months old I'm pretty sure what they are. Some take up to 5 months even to be certain.

 

[Home of Peeps]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

Thank you, I’m glad too everyone is so nice and helpful!

 

[Home of Peeps]

Hello, and welcome to BYC.

Hi! And thank you

 

[Home of Peeps]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

I have been breeding and raising silkies for many years and there's no way to get good at sexing them. All I can do is guess and I'm always 50% right!

At 3 months, once in a blue moon, one will crow. Usually that's around 4 months. About 4 months old I'm pretty sure what they are. Some take up to 5 months even to be certain.

Wow that is awesome and also makes you a silkie expert, so thank you for replying! I didn’t know it could take that long, but that’s okay.

I mostly wanted to know because some people told me that I may need to make accommodations if one/or both are roosters. In your experience, would you say silkie roosters get violent with each other, or may need more than one hen per rooster?

 

[Debbie292d]

Wow that is awesome and also makes you a silkie expert, so thank you for replying! I didn’t know it could take that long, but that’s okay.

I mostly wanted to know because some people told me that I may need to make accommodations if one/or both are roosters. In your experience, would you say silkie roosters get violent with each other, or may need more than one hen per rooster?

As far as hen to rooster ratio, that varies amongst us. I think the 3 hens to 1 rooster in a breeding pen we have is too few, and five is ideal. Some will say many more hens than I do. If you have one of each, it'll work for a while, but then she'll be losing a lot of feathers and looking ragged eventually.

If you have two roosters, then only time will tell if they can get along. Ours get along for the most part, but they have minor scraps now and then. With you possibly having two roosters and no hens, they stand a way higher chance of getting along as there are no hens to fight over.

 

[Home of Peeps]

As far as hen to rooster ratio, that varies amongst us. I think the 3 hens to 1 rooster in a breeding pen we have is too few, and five is ideal. Some will say many more hens than I do. If you have one of each, it'll work for a while, but then she'll be losing a lot of feathers and looking ragged eventually.

If you have two roosters, then only time will tell if they can get along. Ours get along for the most part, but they have minor scraps now and then. With you possibly having two roosters and no hens, they stand a way higher chance of getting along as there are no hens to fight over.

Thanks for all the info! Sounds like two roosters would be the best possible outcome since I wasn’t planning on getting more chickens.. but if I need to, I will! I don’t want to have a stressed out or unhappy girl.
Also, they already get into random scraps here and there for seemingly no reason, but then go absolutely crazy if I try to separate them!

 

[Debbie292d]

Thanks for all the info! Sounds like two roosters would be the best possible outcome since I wasn’t planning on getting more chickens.. but if I need to, I will! I don’t want to have a stressed out or unhappy girl.
Also, they already get into random scraps here and there for seemingly no reason, but then go absolutely crazy if I try to separate them!

I assume they are chest-bumping each other. Pullets will do that, too, so it's still no indication one way or the other. It's cute to watch though!

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[Home of Peeps]

I assume they are chest-bumping each other. Pullets will do that, too, so it's still no indication one way or the other. It's cute to watch though!

Yes it’s adorable, but didn’t know how to react at first! I learned to just let them hatch it out haha