Silkie Sexing Project 2.0

[TheAlrightyGina]

Alright everybody, get your thinking caps on! Here're the babies!

I gave them code names to match their leg bands and help me keep everyone straight in the data file. The first letter is for the color of the band - R is red, P is pink, O is orange, G is green, B is blue and the next two letters are for the color of the chick - Bk is black, Bu is blue, Bf us buff, Wt is white, and Sp is splash.

Try to use the code names or the chick's position by row or column in the above picture for your guesses!

They're all doing well so far. Cackle put the dots on the buffs' heads, I suppose so I could tell them apart from the whites ones. The buffs also don't seem to have the full hypermelanism... :/

 

[LynnaePB]

Aww what little cuties!

Ok well here are my very likely very inaccurate guesses! In person I'd be able to get a better look at the combs which might lead to some slightly better guesses but I know how hard it is to get a look at a very young chicks comb after they've fluffed up let alone take pictures of those combs!

These guesses are mostly based on vaults or lack thereof with a few more based on stance if there aren't many vaulted individuals in that color variety (like the black chicks, I don't really see vaults there). I'm guessing a large number of my guesses will be wrong.

Red

RSp - Male
RBk - Female
RWt - Female
RBf - Male
RBu - Female

Pink

PBk - Male
PBu - Female
PWt - Female
PBf - Male
PSp - Male

Orange

OWt - Male
OBf - Male
OBu - Male
OSp - Male
OBk - Male

Green

GSp - Female
GBf - Female
GWt - Male
GBu - Male
GBk - Female

Blue

BBf - Female
BWt - Female
BSp - Male
BBk - Male
BBu - Female

I'm not surprised about the buff having lighter skin. From what I've heard buff is a really tough variety to get right in silkies. The genetics involved don't necessarily lend themselves to getting dark skin as easily as many varieties. Hopefully the skin will darken a bit over time as well.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Alright everybody, get your thinking caps on! Here're the babies!

View attachment 2587363

I gave them code names to match their leg bands and help me keep everyone straight in the data file. The first letter is for the color of the band - R is red, P is pink, O is orange, G is green, B is blue and the next two letters are for the color of the chick - Bk is black, Bu is blue, Bf us buff, Wt is white, and Sp is splash.

Try to use the code names or the chick's position by row or column in the above picture for your guesses!

They're all doing well so far. Cackle put the dots on the buffs' heads, I suppose so I could tell them apart from the whites ones. The buffs also don't seem to have the full hypermelanism... :/

Gosh! I’m horrible at sexing 8 month silkies! Let alone day olds! Well. I’ll give it a shot.

Green- Male
Blue- Female

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Thanks guys! You're awesome!

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Alright! Here we go with this week's edition of chick mugshots! I was tryna be helpful but most of them ended up looking cranky from my choice of angles others looked surprisingly fabulous

They were more (or less as in BBu's case) cooperative this time, but they still don't enjoy being handled. I forgot to take RBk's headshot...I got the data for them but somehow missed that so I'll get it tomorrow. Everyone's still healthy and happy and growing well!

Edited to update picture

 

[LynnaePB]

So glad they are all doing so well!

My guesses are pretty much the same as last weeks at this point (so hard to guess with such young chicks)! The comb on BWt looks fairly wide/prominent though so I may change that guess to male for this week.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Still horrible at sexing silkies! But here are my guesses for this week.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Thanks you guys! I'll add it to the file!

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Oh, and before I forget, I decided to get the DNA testing. Probably going to do it when they're 2 weeks old so I don't stress them too much as I'm sure it's going to take me a while to take samples from 25 birds. That way, we'll know for sure the accuracy of y'all's guesses and the projections based on the collected data.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Picture has been updated with RBk!