I had a hard time distinguishing between them when they were old.Ended up with 7 chicks, mostly Silkies. I ended up helping the one stuck in its shell hatch. It’s doing fine now. Only got 1 BCM out of 4 eggs, I left them in the incubator since Friday and still no pips. I am disappointedbut also wondering what to do with these Silkies lol.. how old do they have to be to sex?
That only works with some breeds and crosses.
With wing feather sexing you’re looking at an indicator of fast or slow feathering genes. You get fast feathering females and slow feathering males from fast feathering males crossed with slow feathering females. These are usually going to be cross breeds, not pure breeds.
Usually combs and waddles are the first indicators, it depends on the breed as to how early you can tell. I’ve had males develop their combs as early as 3 weeks, but many breeds it’s closer to 6 or more weeks. Pointed saddle feathers start showing up on males later and are also a good indicator. A couple of breeds have autosexing chicks, so males and females look different at hatch, and some crosses will produce sex linked chicks that look different at hatch.
Thank you, hopefully
Congratulations on the hatch.
at least 1 male
