sexing silkies

[erin0415]

At what age are you able to sex silkies? Mine are only 5 weeks, but are starting to show a little bit of difference in their combs. I know silkies take longer to be able to sex than other chickens, but I don't what age that is.

 

[ShysCreations]

They are very tricky. It gets even harder with high show quality ones as the roosters have smaller combs & big crests. Yours are a bit young yet, I give it 8 weeks. I use a combination of signs. Roosters develop more comb, large & mulberry plus more wattle and have a more swept back crest. Hens usually have a small comb bump, rounded crest, tiny wattle. I also watch behaviors. Chicks play alot like facing off with one another, raising neck hackles. The males do this much more often. Hens will play but usually back down and not constantly face off like roosters. I noticed this alot in my bantam cochins, the boys are really rambuctious.
The best way is who starts to crow or lay an egg. But a silkie pullet hatched in April still has not laid an egg yet...

 

[meriruka]

Everything above ^^^^^^^ but also want to add that the roos get thicker feet.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

In my personal experience, i can usually tell between 8-11 weeks. However, most of my silkies have been pet quality. Now, my new two chicks are very good quality and just hit 9 weeks. i have no idea on either. But they are both gorgeous, huge crests, lots of leg feathering. Both have large legs and feet, too, which is usually a good sign of a rooster. With just two chicks, though, i can only compare them to each other. i am really hoping i have two pullets!

Do you have pictures of your silkies? We all LOVE to look at silkie pics and guess the gender!

 

[erin0415]

Here are some pics from the other day. I was trying to get some up close pics, but between the chicks running around, a cat stalking them, and a nosy alpaca I was lucky to get the pics I did get.

The chick on the left in pic 2 & 4 is the one that got me thinking about gender. That one has much more prominent comb than the others.

 

[Easter_pink_silkies]

your featherbabies are quite beautiful! but its very hard to sex silkies when there small, i would need closer pics, and even then im not sure i could tell....

 

[Shared Acres]

I love the other animals staring at them!

 

[LilPeeps]

The white in the 4th pic is a cockerel. The rest are just too young to tell. Usually the first signs of a male will be more prominant comb and wattles...but, just because a bird has a small comb and/or wattles doesn't necessarily mean it's a female. Cute babies

 

[Smoky73]

Check the toes. Pinch the 1st and 3rd toes together (just under the middle toe) and if the toes are the same length, girl, if different lengths(outer toe will probably be the longer of the two) its a boy. Its a know Pigeon sexing trick. It is NOT 100% accurate, but pretty accurate. I have been doing it with silkies a lot, and just recently taught this trick to people at a show, who were then grabbing Adult cochins to see if they followed the rules too and they mostly did. The biggest problem with some silkies I have noticed is that sometimes, one of the toes isnt a full toe, like missing a toenail even so is just a stubby toe. It does not work too well then obviously.

 

[erin0415]

Thats really cool. I will test them out.