silkie sexing

[bantamgirl]

hi everyone i think my little black berry is a pullet. 3 months and a half. love silkies. i wanted them ever since i was like 9. i tried to convince my mom with all the good things but she grew up on a farm and had to kill to many chickens and had told herself she would never have chickens again. sadly one day my rabbit Bambi died, but the same day i found a chicken in a parking lot. it was cold outside and no-one wanted to leave her there so we all work together to catch her i take her home. after a year of loving chickens my mom agreed to let me get more if i paid for them and the coop. i was planning it when my friend got me two two week old chicks. black berry and a buff. now I'm going to build the coop and thinking about getting some favorelles. chickens are the best.

 

[yammafarmer]

 

[yammafarmer]

i'd say pullet.

That would be so exciting. She just passed the toe test--her first and third toes are the same length when I pinch them together, which is supposed to indicate pullet. Her comb hasn't grown any and her behavior is still henish. I'll post results when I know for sure, and maybe some more photos along the way. Now I'm staring at her beak all the time to see if I can tell her sex by the curve.

 

[LaynaDon95]

i'd say 1 roo 2 hen.

I'm starting to think the same thing. I'll try to remember to post more pics tomorrow. #1's wattles are starting to get bigger. (S)he's darker than #2 now and over all just looks kinda... boyish. I don't know how to describe it.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Update on a gender guess!
How many times have you heard the statement,"You'll know when it crows or lays an egg"? Well, our BB started crowing last week and we were totally bummed. Several people had guessed that BB was a rooster so we weren't too surprised -just dissappointed.

In my heart, however, I still held onto the hope that BB was just a crowing pullet because none of the other cockerels were crowing yet.
Then "IT" happened! We found our first silkie egg in the pen.

We automatically gave credit to Mysty Blue -the other 25 week old silkie. Then, on Sunday afternoon, while sitting, watching my silkies............I observed our blue silkie lay her egg. (She was facing away from me.) When she turned around...........it was BB!

Yes, it was the silkie that people guessed 'rooster' and that had crowed! I was in such shock that we put blue food coloring in her vent to make sure it was BB. We put green food coloring in Mysty Blue. Well, the next egg indeed had a blue streak on it. Confirming that BB was a girl and laying those eggs.

Just some things to note:
1. Even though BB had a more "roosterish" posture, she never had streamers like my younger cockerels. This always baffled me when I tried to call her a boy because of the lack of streamers.
2. BB started doing the egg squat a week before she layed her first egg. Since BB had crowed, we just thought that BB got startled. Now we know what she was doing.
3. Another reason I was never convinced that BB was a roo was her behavior. BB never chest-bumped with the other cockerels and had an overall submissive attitude. I hope my experience helps others in determining silkie genders...but they sure do keep us guessing!

 

[silkiemelon]

I'm starting to think the same thing. I'll try to remember to post more pics tomorrow. #1's wattles are starting to get bigger. (S)he's darker than #2 now and over all just looks kinda... boyish. I don't know how to describe it.

You need to post pics!!

 

[RainyPeeps]

Well thank you so much!

Steve is the father of all of my silkies right now. Hopefully my sizzle George will step up and make some funny looking kids as well.
I bred buff to blue and got an array of colours. So breed your roo to them all and you should have lots of fun looking kids! Right now I am not breeding for anything specific. I believe Steve has partridge in his background for sure though.

My little man.
Your black hen is very nice! I love the cushion

I have two 9 week olds who's parents were buff and splash. If I understand what little I know about silkie colours correctly, this resulted in the blue in my silkies? Would you call that blue that is showing up? Do you think the colors will keep changing or pretty much look like this when they are mature?

 

[RainyPeeps]

Oh yeah, and does anyone think they are girls or boys? Here's a few more pics:

 

[silkiemelon]

I have two 9 week olds who's parents were buff and splash. If I understand what little I know about silkie colours correctly, this resulted in the blue in my silkies? Would you call that blue that is showing up? Do you think the colors will keep changing or pretty much look like this when they are mature?

I'm not an expert on silkie color genetics, but I believe that those are the colors that they will keep with them, even when they mature. It looks like blue and buff in them.Those shades may darken or lighten a bit, but I think that's what you're going to get. Which doesn't look like it will be a problem, they are gorgeous! I especially love the first one! (If you run out of room, feel free to send her to me, seriously!)

At the moment the first one looks like a pullet for sure, not sure on the second. You'll have to wait longer on that one.

 

[Member 151789]

i have four 5-week olds that we bought from a feed store in a silkie color assortment. i think the smallest white one and the partridge ones are girls, but my family thinks they are all roos

chick #1




chick #2




#3




#4





thank you guys so much! hope we got at least one hen