Silkie Sexing Project 2.0

[Annaandmadelyn]

Hello everyone. New to the forum and we just got a couple of silkies for my daughter. I wondering if anyone ever tried to sex their silkies by placing them on their backs to see if they are female or male? If you have how did it turn out ? Or I also have read somewhere about the shape of their beak also can determine if they are a female or a male. Has anyone tried these? Thanks every one.

 

[NatJ]

Hello everyone. New to the forum and we just got a couple of silkies for my daughter. I wondering if anyone ever tried to sex their silkies by placing them on their backs to see if they are female or male? If you have how did it turn out ? Or I also have read somewhere about the shape of their beak also can determine if they are a female or a male. Has anyone tried these? Thanks every one.

pipdzipdnreadytogo is testing a bunch of chick-sexing methods, and has an article here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/an-experiment-in-chick-sexing-methods.72520/

The place-on-back method was not particularly accurate, but I didn't see any mention of the beak shape method.

(Spoiler: most of the methods tested in that article are about as accurate as flipping a coin or guessing randomly.)

 

[afwifey]

Week 5: Well, their weights flip-flopped on Week 5! Mochi is a hefty 143g and Mocha is only 119g
To be fair Mocha had a hair wrapped around her toe and I think it was causing her pain so that may have effected her eating a little.
Mochi- gray Mocha- brown

 

[CaramelKittey]

Awesome thread! Can't wait to find out the results! I don't have pictures but I did want to pop on and say that I usually have a pretty good idea of who the males are around 8-9 weeks, maybe a little closer to 6-7. I've noticed slight wattle growth at that time and a slightly raised comb on the males. All of my breeders are bearded (which inhibits wattle growth) so anytime I see a little wattle growth around 6-7 weeks I can be pretty sure it's a male. Anybody else noticed this?

 

[HappyClucker7]

And here are the internet trophies and ribbons, as promised (feel free to download and do whatever with them)!

In the category highest accuracy achieved we have a tie for 3rd between @Krugerrand for their final round guesses and @HappyClucker7 for their 9th round guesses!!
View attachment 2702110View attachment 2702111

In 2nd place we a three way tie between @RoostersAreAwesome, for their round 8/9 scores, @EmmaRainboe for their final round score, and @Chickeria for their 9th round score.
View attachment 2702115View attachment 2702116View attachment 2702117

First Place goes to @LynnaePB, for their round 9 and 10 scores!
View attachment 2702125

For Best Overall Accuracy we have @Krugerrand with 61% average accuracy for all rounds.
View attachment 2702324

2nd place goes to @charlotte-and-the-bees with a 67% average for all rounds.
View attachment 2702325

1st place in overall accuracy goes to @LynnaePB, with an average accuracy of 77% for all 10 rounds!
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I wanted to do at least one trophy, so here's to @LynnaePB for just rocking this guessing thing (you're gonna be my go-to Silkie sexpert from now on, lol)

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Yes, yes, I know I'm a huge dork. you guys!
Edited to switch 2nd and 3rd place accuracy winners. Sorry guys...I goofed.

I proudly take my trophy.


View attachment 2702157

I really appreciate each and every one of you for helping me with this project. It's gonna take me a while to get all the data organized in a valuable format, but your contribution was invaluable. I will be sure to link that when I get it done (probably gonna do an article).

@GingerAndHerChicks, your score for the final round was 58%, guessing 14 of 24 correctly. @MixedFlock23, you got 16 out of 24 right, for 67% accuracy.

Here was the break down for everyone else:

Guessor	1​	2​	3​	4​	5​	6​	7​	8​	9​	10​	Average
charlotte-and-the-bees	63%​	54%​	58%​	58%​	75%​	63%​	63%​	79%​	83%	75%​	67%​
Chickeria	-	-	46%​	54%	42%​	50%​	50%​	54%​	67%​	75%​	55%​
EmmaRainboe	50%​	50%​	50%​	-	75%​	54%​	-	-	-	88%​	61%​
HappyClucker7	-	-	-	-	71%​	67%​	75%​	71%​	83%​	-	73%​
JustAChickenLoverOverHere	-	-	58%​	-	42%​	-	-	-	-	-	50%​
Krugerrand	58%​	50%​	63%​	50%​	50%​	67%​	54%​	63%​	75%​	83%​	61%​
LynnaePB	71%​	71%​	58%​	71%​	79%​	79%​	75%​	83%​	92%​	92%​	77%​
RoostersAreAwesome	-	-	46%​	-	54%​	71%​	75%​	88%​	88%​	71%​	70%​

ETA: I did an average that included all of the rounds for the ribbons/trophies, as the earlier rounds are harder since there is less to see. That brought the averages down to 46% for @Chickeria , 37% for @EmmaRainboe , 37% for @HappyClucker7, 10% for @JustAChickenLoverOverHere, and 49% for @RoostersAreAwesome . The average in the table are for the rounds that you submitted guesses for.

Edited again to update charlotte-and-the-bee's score.
Edited again to correct Chickeria's score.

Wow, can't believe I actually did as well as a I did! This was really fun!

 

[HappyClucker7]

I'm gonna give @HappyClucker7 til Thursday morning to make their guesses, and then I'll be laying it all out for y'all!

It's Thursday morning, in New Zealand!

I like this!! Let’s go with it!
(I keep clicking on Happy’s name to see if they’ve been on since last Friday night. Lol)
So excited to see DNA results!

You ain't the only one, haha. If they hadn't been participating consistently I'd go ahead, but I want to give them the chance since they have been.

Aw, sorry I kept you guys waiting. I was super busy and didn't have time to come on here.

 

[Krugerrand]

Aw, sorry I kept you guys waiting. I was super busy and didn't have time to come on here.

​

Also as much as I love this project, I still have other work to do! Darn being an adult with adult responsibilities!

As Gina said, we all have other responsibilities.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Aw, sorry I kept you guys waiting. I was super busy and didn't have time to come on here.

No worries! I really appreciate how much you were able to participate.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Also, I'm still hard at work. I've finished my write up of growth rate and weight. Now I'm on the other three measures and then I'll be wrapping things up. I know I'm going slow but I'm trying my darnedest to avoid errors!

 

[afwifey]

For those still following song, our puff balls are looking more silky everyday!
Week 6:
Mochi (gray) 193g
Mocha (brown) 153g