Silkie thread!

[Hinotori]

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Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxCPhJJjdhTtdFpYa2xsaUxBbm8/view?usp=sharing

Hey guys, im basically moving this from my thread to here to pick your brains a little. Thanks to @NNYchick for suggesting I ask in here.

I have a silkie that I've had since mid June and still no eggs/broodiness.
Her sister has already layed eggs, and more.

Her sis laid eggs for 2 weeks,
Went broody and sat on fake eggs for 1 week,
Sat on real eggs for 3 weeks,
now has ran around with her baby chicks for 2 weeks.
--
So in total the other hen started laying 8 weeks ago, and her sister(?) has not laid the first egg.
They weren't babies when we got them, but they had not started laying at the time.
I also took a short video of her/him. Gandy has started to become a little more aggressive towards my hen, so im starting to wonder if Gandy is a dude.

Looks like a girl to me. Do you know how old? Mine don't lay until at least 8 months and some have gone until 10.

Once I had a silkie hen that had something wrong with her ovaries. She laid a handful of eggs in two years and would join the rooster in crowing for morning treats when they saw me. So sometimes things just go wrong.

 

[Hinotori]

Hinotori I have Silkie question. This chick hatched two days ago is this a Partridge or a buff? I think it may be a Blue Partridge. What's your first impression.
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I'm not sure what that might feather into. Maybe buff? It's not the color of a partridge or blue partridge chick. Those are chipmunked, though it is pastel on the blue partridge.

 

[Hinotori]

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How do you sex based on coloring for partridge? This is the first I’d heard of it. And I think I hatched out a partridge. Could you explain how that works and take a guess of sex of this chick?- Thanks

Around 6 weeks or so silkies start to get their juvenile feathers in to replace the baby feathers. By 10 weeks the color difference is normally obvious in males and females. This only works because partridge sexes are different colors.

I can make fairly accurate guesses around 8 weeks. The darker partridge females tend to be easier to identify earlier. I had sexed one obvious little girl at 5 weeks last year and took a picture once a week of her for 2 months I think. Boys from a certain hen of mine juvenile feather in white on the belly and beard and sex earlier as well. I'm trying to breed that trait into the whole line with limited success. They also end up being the better colored roosters with nice black.

 

[Hinotori]

Week 5

Week 6. boy on left girl on right.

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

That male at week 13

Week 14

 

[Hinotori]

Partridge chicks. One on left is from a specific hen of a different line crossed in. One in middle is partridge. One on right is blue partridge. All are clearly chipmunked.

Only because it was a small hatch and I know which birds these turned out to be, it's male on left and the other two are female. Cannot sex this early.

 

[moosie-boy]

Round 2 regarding partridge silkie sexing! These guys are now 13 weeks old. All had distinct chipmunk stripes except #2, who only had a faint stripe down its back. I'm hoping for all pullets, especially the scissors beak. Thanks everyone for your help!

#1

#2

#3

#4

 

[Hinotori]

Round 2 regarding partridge silkie sexing! These guys are now 13 weeks old. All had distinct chipmunk stripes except #2, who only had a faint stripe down its back. I'm hoping for all pullets, especially the scissors beak. Thanks everyone for your help!

#1
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#2
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#3
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#4
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That's not really partridge color. It's more like the odd color I got from crossing two very different partridge lines. It went away when bred back to the father's line.

If I was just going on color for a partridge, I'd say boy on all of them since there is an orange male type. See pullet pictures above.

Guessing I'd say number one is male and the rest are female. Well I'm 90% sure the first one is male. It looks male.

 

[moosie-boy]

WAH. I think you're right about #1 since I saw it chest bumping the others yesterday. I also heard a weird sound that could have been an attempt at a crow. Hopefully the others are female even though they did have the chipmunk striping (#3 and #4)when they hatched.

 

[Hinotori]

WAH. I think you're right about #1 since I saw it chest bumping the others yesterday. I also heard a weird sound that could have been an attempt at a crow. Hopefully the others are female even though they did have the chipmunk striping (#3 and #4)when they hatched.

All partridge hatch chipmunk. It doesn't tell sex.

 

[Hinotori]

Oh and don't breed the crossbeak bird. They can pass it on