silkie sexing

[hdowden]

Yea I know that's Jules. He just started to crow two days ago and I know it sounds stupid but until then we thought we had all pullets. So the big guy in the back ground has to go this week

Thats when I decided I had better try and find out on the silkie too.

Thanks for your help its frustrating out of 9 so called pullets 4 have ended up being roos

Lance

silkies are hard to sex but others feathered like your other cockerel are easier to tell. do you see those long lender pointed feathers at the base of the tail (saddles) and the ones around his neck (hackles)? only cockerels will get those. a hens saddle and hackles will be fat and rounded like the feathers on her body with the hackles being a little thinner though. for silkies i have noticed that the hackles on a cockerel/rooster are courser than on a pullets/hens

 

[utlancem]

silkies are hard to sex but others feathered like your other cockerel are easier to tell. do you see those long lender pointed feathers at the base of the tail (saddles) and the ones around his neck (hackles)? only cockerels will get those. a hens saddle and hackles will be fat and rounded like the feathers on her body with the hackles being a little thinner though. for silkies i have noticed that the hackles on a cockerel/rooster are courser than on a pullets/hens

Thank you so much.

We are new to chickens and having fun with them. I do feel stupid for the last rooster though (Jules), we woke up Friday morning to him crowing and as soon as we walked out side it hit us. He is a big beautiful guy how did we not notice he was a Cockerel ? Funny thing is I kept telling my kids "she should start laying any day now" hahaha

 

[WinterLadyAK]

Thanks! Guess I'll just have to post new pics in a month or so and and see if opinions change. Thanks for the input. I would love to see pics of your twinsies (young or mature)!

Hi RainyPeeps, here are my twinsies!
So the one on the right is a pullet, the one on the left is a cockerel. I think you can see it if you enlarge the photo, but they both used to look like the one on the right, for ages... it seems that these two just don't get big, my other buff silkie is quite large, she's a bearded, and my white silkie pullet is twice their size. They're the runts I guess. Anyways this is a screenshot from a video taken over a month ago, not the best but looking through my pictures I didn't have hardly any with these two together. The one on the left (Curry) has just gotten uglier and uglier with a huge comb. I don't know why he seems ugly to me, but he really does. Especially compared to my beautiful partridge plymouth rooster, and to his former twin (Gobbles) on the right who is our favorite. But point being, they were identical up to about 5 months, both looked exactly like the one on the right does in this photo.

 

[eljeffers]

8 Week old Buff Silkies..... Hens or Roos????? Thoughts?

 

[RainyPeeps]

Hi RainyPeeps, here are my twinsies!
So the one on the right is a pullet, the one on the left is a cockerel. I think you can see it if you enlarge the photo, but they both used to look like the one on the right, for ages... it seems that these two just don't get big, my other buff silkie is quite large, she's a bearded, and my white silkie pullet is twice their size. They're the runts I guess. Anyways this is a screenshot from a video taken over a month ago, not the best but looking through my pictures I didn't have hardly any with these two together. The one on the left (Curry) has just gotten uglier and uglier with a huge comb. I don't know why he seems ugly to me, but he really does. Especially compared to my beautiful partridge plymouth rooster, and to his former twin (Gobbles) on the right who is our favorite. But point being, they were identical up to about 5 months, both looked exactly like the one on the right does in this photo.

Thanks for the pics! They are super cute!

Here's new photos of mine. Thought I would take some before the rain starts back up. Still pullets?

Marshmallow 21 weeks









Georgia Peach 20 weeks








Pardon the dirty face!

 

[RainyPeeps]

8 Week old Buff Silkies..... Hens or Roos????? Thoughts?

They are a beautiful color!
Looks like pullets to me, but I'm new to this. As you can see, I'm still trying to sex mine. Good luck!

 

[aoxa]

Thanks for the pics! They are super cute!

Here's new photos of mine.  Thought I would take some before the rain starts back up.  Still pullets?

Marshmallow 21 weeks









Georgia Peach 20 weeks








Pardon the dirty face!

Both are definitely pullets!

So adorable!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Wow thank you!! My 7-8 month old as round a pouf as you can get , no comb at all , no wattles at all, very shy and docile subservient to other birds just crowed ! So as girlie as he looks.... Silkies never fail to surprise me!! I am learning so much!! Thanks for posting!

aaggjg, don't give up..........it could still be a girl. Seriously, BOTH of my silkie hens crowed before starting to lay eggs. And, my Mysty Blue still crows and challenges the 2 roosters every morning. She is my only silkie laying eggs, but is very dominant.

For my silkie cockerels/roosters the main clue was streamers (first).....in every case. Good luck!

 

[aaggjg]

aaggjg, don't give up..........it could still be a girl. Seriously, BOTH of my silkie hens crowed before starting to lay eggs.  And, my Mysty Blue still crows and challenges the 2 roosters every morning.  She is my only silkie laying eggs, but is very dominant.

For my silkie cockerels/roosters the main clue was streamers (first).....in every case.  Good luck! 

Hey Cali chick you are right she is a Girl!! Has been laying for a few weeks now!! Yippppeeee. She has stopped the crowing so I think she was just confused. She was a very quiet chicken and now talks a little before she lays..... So I think she was just finding her voice

The one mystery that I just solved yesterday was she would go in the nest box for a long time.... Then she would come out... So I'd go to get the egg and low and behold there would be no egg.... Well then I'd see out of the corner of my eye an egg on the ramp!! I kept thinking silly chicken what are you doing.... Well yesterday I let the girls out to free range and Tiger started walking away from me and I saw something on her bumm ... Yep an egg!! It had stuck to her fluff!! So she lays it in the box but it is moist so it attaches to her fluff and when she walks out it falls off somewhere... Mystery solved....

Ooohhh and I have another silkie girl who just started laying a few days ago

 

[CALI CHICK]

Hey Cali chick you are right she is a Girl!! Has been laying for a few weeks now!! Yippppeeee. She has stopped the crowing so I think she was just confused. She was a very quiet chicken and now talks a little before she lays..... So I think she was just finding her voice

The one mystery that I just solved yesterday was she would go in the nest box for a long time.... Then she would come out... So I'd go to get the egg and low and behold there would be no egg.... Well then I'd see out of the corner of my eye an egg on the ramp!! I kept thinking silly chicken what are you doing.... Well yesterday I let the girls out to free range and Tiger started walking away from me and I saw something on her bumm ... Yep an egg!! It had stuck to her fluff!! So she lays it in the box but it is moist so it attaches to her fluff and when she walks out it falls off somewhere... Mystery solved....
Ooohhh and I have another silkie girl who just started laying a few days ago

That is wonderful!

My silkies don't even get into their nest box-LOL! Twice I found blue eggs from my EE in the silkies' nestbox though!

In the last 2 years I've had about a dozen silkie roosters and only 3 girls (from hatching and buying them as straight run chicks). My partridge girl isn't laying yet but I can tell her gender by her coloring at least. She is eight months old so anyday she'll start laying. Currently I have 6 silkie chicks in the brooder and am SO wanting more girls.

One of these days I need to post a picture of my little splash (1 month old). "He" is already getting a comb "bump" and it is pinkish. Plus, today I noticed the tiniest pink "spots" where the wattles will be................

Looks like an early developing cockerel.