Not Sure If You've Got A Pullet Or Cockerel? Click Here! Thread 2

[WVduckchick]

Feather sexing only works if a chick has been specifically bred for it. It requires a very specific set of genes from each parent for accuracy.

Among all the other misinformation out there, that is one that bugs me a lot. Soooo many videos on how to look at a wing and know what sex it is, without any mention of the breed, etc.

 

[junebuggena]

Among all the other misinformation out there, that is one that bugs me a lot. Soooo many videos on how to look at a wing and know what sex it is, without any mention of the breed, etc.

Right! If it were really as simple to sex as looking at the wing feathers within the first 24 hours of hatching, hatchery sexing would be 100% accurate and no one would ever get miss-sexed males.

 

[we5farmers]

Good afternoon everyone! I'm not sure if my posts got lost in the shuffle or if it's just really hard to sex silkies! Lol. Just in case it's the former, I'm reposting. We have 2 silkies that when we got them at 5-6 weeks old, the breeder assured us that they were female. Now they are 15-16 weeks old and one made a suspiciously crow like noise. So I'm wondering if I have 2 Roos, 2 pullets, or one of each. I'll try to get good pictures on here but it tends to not take all photos for some reason. One is a "blue" silkie and one is black.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Good afternoon everyone! I'm not sure if my posts got lost in the shuffle or if it's just really hard to sex silkies! Lol. Just in case it's the former, I'm reposting. We have 2 silkies that when we got them at 5-6 weeks old, the breeder assured us that they were female. Now they are 15-16 weeks old and one made a suspiciously crow like noise. So I'm wondering if I have 2 Roos, 2 pullets, or one of each. I'll try to get good pictures on here but it tends to not take all photos for some reason. One is a "blue" silkie and one is black.

No silkie expert, but the first looks like a male to me...not sure on the second.

 

[iluvsedward]

 

Among all the other misinformation out there, that is one that bugs me a lot.  Soooo many videos on how to look at a wing and know what sex it is, without any mention of the breed, etc. 

Right! If it were really as simple to sex as looking at the wing feathers within the first 24 hours of hatching, hatchery sexing would be 100% accurate and no one would ever get miss-sexed males.

Are you kidding me?! Aw man. My 4 chicks just hatched and i sexed them that way thinking theyre all hens. At least ik one of them is a hen, its a BSL

 

[we5farmers]

No silkie expert, but the first looks like a male to me...not sure on the second.

Thank you so much! The second one that you're not sure of (the black) is the one that what I'm pretty sure now was a crow. So it looks like I may have two roosters. So much for the breeder being able to tell.

 

[debid]

Are you kidding me?! Aw man. My 4 chicks just hatched and i sexed them that way thinking theyre all hens. At least ik one of them is a hen, its a BSL

Sometimes you get lucky and have the required feathering genetics but it does require a fast feathering male and a slow feathering female. So, the very method makes it NOT a universal truth that males feather more slowly. If it worked like that, the hatcheries would sex them all that way and save themselves some $.

 

[junebuggena]

It also should be noted that slower to feather does not always indicate that a bird has the 'slow feathering' gene. There is quite a bit of variation in what is considered a 'normal' rate of feathering in.

 

[Ethan8772]

These are two of my four bantams, thinking that the one with the darker beak might be a rooster since he/she is the only one without a yellow beak. They are both a few days older than 4 weeks.

 

[Heather94]

2/28 hatch date. Bantam frizzled Cochin