SILKIE BREEDERS: Need Your Help, Info...

[GypsyChic]

Ok, these are my new "kids", 3 blk and 3 blue bant silkies (the tiny ones...bant??). My question is, can you tell sex by color in the offspring like sex link type, ie: darker colors female, eye bars = male, ect??? The 3 blues show different markings, 2 the same, third is different. I seriously don't mean to ask a stupid question, I simply have never had any previous exp w/this breed. Would DEEPLY appreciate any info any of you wish to share. I'm more of a "Heritage Breed" kinda chic...Thanks in advance for whatever you can LEARN me...

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Silkies are very hard to sex..I thought I had males so I was going to sell them at the swap that morning there was an egg.. Then I was wondering who did it!

Well all of them where female go figure...

They look soo cute have fun trying to sex them

 

[shelleyd2008]

First off, all silkies are bantams in the US, it's just that some are bigger (or smaller) than others.

Silkies don't have a sex-link color that I know of, so that won't help. As stated before, silkies are very hard to sex, I wasn't completely sure on my older birds until they started crowing or laying

 

[GypsyChic]

Whew...hubby thought I was seriously ignorant when I told him I thought they were all "small" (bants)...Secondly, I really appreciate the info, it's consistant with what I've read, but I wanted to be sure.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

No way to tell at this age. As partridge and greys get older, you can usually begin seeing gender differences in their patterns, but not this young.

The closest thing to sex-link would be if you breed a grey hen to a partridge male pure for gold. But it can be difficult telling newly hatched greys from partridges, so even that isn't very helpful.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
With the introduction of barring in silkies, couldn't that eventually be used as a sex-link? Or is that barring different than on BR and such?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

No, you're right. Cuckoo silkies could be bred so tht head spot differences could be used to ascertain the birds carrying two genes from those carrying one; only males can carry two.