Sexing Silkies?! I need so much help and advice! TIA

[NatJ]

I was hoping the oldest would be a boy because just like us humans the Roo boys mature so much slower I feel

That does not match my experience.

I have seen that males are typically trying to mate quite a bit before their sisters start laying eggs. I've also seen threads where other people have issues with that, a male trying to mate with his same-age sisters or flockmates, who are smaller than him and not yet ready. Full mature size might take longer for the males (I'm not entirely sure), but sexual maturity seems to hit most of the males earlier than most of the females.

 

[frasereve]

That’s great!
Hopefully the rest will be girls then.
Yeah, silkies are definitely harder to sex haha. Got some fertilised silkie eggs arriving in a few days so they’re gonna be a challenge to sex when they’re older haha

I have 7 in the incubator abt to hatch in 4 days if you would like to see?show quality regionally prized parents?!? I’ve spent almost $100 on just these eggs for the show quality!! And “knock on wood” out of the almost 6 dozen eggs I’ve hatched this year alone I’ve gotten only 4 Roos and the rest were girls my gram had an old trick she told my before she passed or I’ve just been amazingly blessed and lucky so far

 

[frasereve]

That does not match my experience.

I have seen that males are typically trying to mate quite a bit before their sisters start laying eggs. I've also seen threads where other people have issues with that, a male trying to mate with his same-age sisters or flockmates, who are smaller than him and not yet ready. Full mature size might take longer for the males (I'm not entirely sure), but sexual maturity seems to hit most of the males earlier than most of the females.

Maybe I’ve just had late bloomers see Casper is 4 months old and a silkie tho so I know their maturity can be really late compared to other breeds but my blue Easter egger was at 3 m when he first tried anything. And my Easter egger is with the 10 month old laying hens, 2 four month hens and 1 20 week hen. But since Casper hasn’t attempted to mate or even any roo behavior ( he calls all the babies to bed/coop every night and constantly finds food for them and constantly plays with them like letting them chase him and jump on his back) so maybe he’s just a baby dude

 

[Pinedale Silkies]

I have 7 in the incubator abt to hatch in 4 days if you would like to see?show quality regionally prized parents?!? I’ve spent almost $100 on just these eggs for the show quality!! And “knock on wood” out of the almost 6 dozen eggs I’ve hatched this year alone I’ve gotten only 4 Roos and the rest were girls my gram had an old trick she told my before she passed or I’ve just been amazingly blessed and lucky so far

I’d love too! tag me when you post them or PM me, whatever’s easier.
Yeah, I’m getting 12 eggs from some lady who’s hens looked to be show quality or almost show quality in the photos, and 8 from a lady whose chickens have actually one some shows. (She had pictures of them at the show with their ribbons) so hopefully some good, show quality stock. Which of course meant that they were pretty expensive Hopefully they’re worth it.
Yeah, my grandfather had a few tricks with eggs/chicks. If you don’t mind me asking, what was her trick?

 

[frasereve]

I’d love too! tag me when you post them or PM me, whatever’s easier.
Yeah, I’m getting 12 eggs from some lady who’s hens looked to be show quality or almost show quality in the photos, and 8 from a lady whose chickens have actually one some shows. (She had pictures of them at the show with their ribbons) so hopefully some good, show quality stock. Which of course meant that they were pretty expensive Hopefully they’re worth it.
Yeah, my grandfather had a few tricks with eggs/chicks. If you don’t mind me asking, what was her trick?

I’d love too! tag me when you post them or PM me, whatever’s easier.
Yeah, I’m getting 12 eggs from some lady who’s hens looked to be show quality or almost show quality in the photos, and 8 from a lady whose chickens have actually one some shows. (She had pictures of them at the show with their ribbons) so hopefully some good, show quality stock. Which of course meant that they were pretty expensive Hopefully they’re worth it.
Yeah, my grandfather had a few tricks with eggs/chicks. If you don’t mind me asking, what was her trick?

I’ll tell if you tell? There were certain steps like were you 1st turn on the incubator fill it completely to the brim with water and let that filter through until it’s at the right humidity for eggs and then you can set eggs finally! We do a dry incubation after this point! Also you spray the eggs with a apple cider vinegar water 50/50 solution and set “big” end side up for the first 3 days no turning. On day three you lay them all on their sides and turn 5 times a day til day 18 and on day 18 you stop and add a sponge filled with water to increase humidity to 75 degrees til hatching and then ofc course babies!!!

 

[Pinedale Silkies]

I’ll tell if you tell? There were certain steps like were you 1st turn on the incubator fill it completely to the brim with water and let that filter through until it’s at the right humidity for eggs and then you can set eggs finally! We do a dry incubation after this point! Also you spray the eggs with a apple cider vinegar water 50/50 solution and set “big” end side up for the first 3 days no turning. On day three you lay them all on their sides and turn 5 times a day til day 18 and on day 18 you stop and add a sponge filled with water to increase humidity to 75 degrees til hatching and then ofc course babies!!!

Of course lol. My grandfathers methods were a lot more old fashioned, more about using hens then incubators haha.
His family would only use the eggs with more rounded ends/more pointed ends depending on wether they wanted more hens or more roosters. He reckoned it worked pretty well, but I’ve never really tried it so who knows.
They’d also never set any smaller eggs/pullet eggs due to risks with the chick being to big for the eggs/lower fertility and they had pretty good odds with that. He once told me about a hen they had that they put eggs under, but then it kept gathering eggs, and ended up hatching like 30+ chicks!
There was some other stuff they did, but my memories pretty bad haha. I’ll let you know if I remember.

 

[NatJ]

out of the almost 6 dozen eggs I’ve hatched this year alone I’ve gotten only 4 Roos and the rest were girls my gram had an old trick she told my before she passed or I’ve just been amazingly blessed and lucky so far

I think you're just lucky.

The gender of the chick is determined before the egg is laid. It is not changed by anything you do during incubation.

The sex chromosomes in birds are backwards of what mammals have, so males have ZZ and females have ZW. This also means the mother determines the sex of each chick, since she's the one with two different chromosomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system

His family would only use the eggs with more rounded ends/more pointed ends depending on wether they wanted more hens or more roosters. He reckoned it worked pretty well, but I’ve never really tried it so who knows.

That idea has been around for thousands of years, at least since Aristotle in 350 BC:
"Long and pointed eggs are female; those that are round, or more rounded at the narrow end, are male. "
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.6.vi.html

And some people now say the shape/gender pairing is opposite of what he said.

But as best anyone can tell by actually studying it, egg shape has nothing to do with chick gender. Certain breeds tend to lay rounder or pointier eggs, but they all produce chicks in both genders. And some individual hens lay eggs of one shape or another, but they also tend to produce chicks of both genders.

 

[frasereve]

I think you're just lucky.

The gender of the chick is determined before the egg is laid. It is not changed by anything you do during incubation.

The sex chromosomes in birds are backwards of what mammals have, so males have ZZ and females have ZW. This also means the mother determines the sex of each chick, since she's the one with two different chromosomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system



That idea has been around for thousands of years, at least since Aristotle in 350 BC:
"Long and pointed eggs are female; those that are round, or more rounded at the narrow end, are male. "
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.6.vi.html

And some people now say the shape/gender pairing is opposite of what he said.

But as best anyone can tell by actually studying it, egg shape has nothing to do with chick gender. Certain breeds tend to lay rounder or pointier eggs, but they all produce chicks in both genders. And some individual hens lay eggs of one shape or another, but they also tend to produce chicks of both genders.

Let me keep my luck and be a little crazy

 

[frasereve]

I’d love too! tag me when you post them or PM me, whatever’s easier.
Yeah, I’m getting 12 eggs from some lady who’s hens looked to be show quality or almost show quality in the photos, and 8 from a lady whose chickens have actually one some shows. (She had pictures of them at the show with their ribbons) so hopefully some good, show quality stock. Which of course meant that they were pretty expensive Hopefully they’re worth it.
Yeah, my grandfather had a few tricks with eggs/chicks. If you don’t mind me asking, what was her trick?

I just got these photos!!! It’s hard to get up close with all these feathers in the way!! But I believe that they are all girls besides the youngsters I can’t tell

 

[Pinedale Silkies]

I think you're just lucky.

The gender of the chick is determined before the egg is laid. It is not changed by anything you do during incubation.

The sex chromosomes in birds are backwards of what mammals have, so males have ZZ and females have ZW. This also means the mother determines the sex of each chick, since she's the one with two different chromosomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system



That idea has been around for thousands of years, at least since Aristotle in 350 BC:
"Long and pointed eggs are female; those that are round, or more rounded at the narrow end, are male. "
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.6.vi.html

And some people now say the shape/gender pairing is opposite of what he said.

But as best anyone can tell by actually studying it, egg shape has nothing to do with chick gender. Certain breeds tend to lay rounder or pointier eggs, but they all produce chicks in both genders. And some individual hens lay eggs of one shape or another, but they also tend to produce chicks of both genders.

Yeah I know haha, I’m just sharing what he and his family did, not what I personally believe. The pointed vs rounded egg debate has long been disproven (so far…), it’s just a fun little family story I like to tell people sometimes