Silkie thread!

[FirstTimeClucky]

I know they say its very hard to tell the sex of a silkie until they crow or lay an egg, these two are growing pretty fast and I see them running at each other all the time and chest bumping each other, does that always mean that they will be a rooster?

My two Silkie pullets used to play fight and chest bump every morning. I worried that they were males as well. Now my cockerel doesn't do it with the hens, and I don't see the hens chest bumping either. If my partridge hen sees the cockerel doing anything she disapproves of (like backing around the pen because I just put his collar on him) she runs over and pecks at him.

 

[Silkies4Life1216]

Hey guys, I have actually found out a way to sex chicks... but they have to be VERY young.
I learned this from a chicken lady... so... here it is:
You hold them by their feet, and then you turn them upside down...
If they try to curl up they are a male, if they don’t care and just allow it they are female. I tried it with my 2 and it showed them being both females...

 

[Hinotori]

Hey guys, I have actually found out a way to sex chicks... but they have to be VERY young.
I learned this from a chicken lady... so... here it is:
You hold them by their feet, and then you turn them upside down...
If they try to curl up they are a male, if they don’t care and just allow it they are female. I tried it with my 2 and it showed them being both females...

Too bad it is not accurate in any way. Old wives tale. Flipping a coin will work better

I've seen it tested against sex links and auto sexing breeds. Random if a bird did it

 

[Silkies4Life1216]

Too bad it is not accurate in any way. Old wives tale. Flipping a coin will work better

I've seen it tested against sex links and auto sexing breeds. Random if a bird did it

The man I found this out from is a farmer who owns a hatchery... I don’t know but I do know he told me that he has never had this fail on him..

 

[Hinotori]

The man I found this out from is a farmer who owns a hatchery... I don’t know but I do know he told me that he has never had this fail on him..

There are only certain ways to be sure of sex. Most hatcheries use vent sexing (90% accurate). Some birds are bred for feather sexing (has to do with fast feathering and slow feathering breeds). Sex-link is easiest (crossing certain colors makes chicks sexable at hatch). Specific breeds are auto sexing (hatch color difference is passed down unlike sex-link. See Legbars).

Silkies are small making vent sexing not very easy or accurate. The only way to be sure on most silkies is wait until they lay an egg. I've had a female that crowed.

Certain colors are sexable once out of chick and into juvenile feathers. Partridge is like that because males and females are different colors as adults.

 

[Hinotori]

I will say that most adult feathered male silkies get streamers on their crest and it is usually swept back. Not all of them. I have boys that look like girls in crest until the streamers come in. They are obviously boys by color.

 

[Hinotori]

Very dangerous box to put your hand in. There are two hens behind her to back her up protecting the chicks

 

[Natanya]

Hey guys, I have actually found out a way to sex chicks... but they have to be VERY young.
I learned this from a chicken lady... so... here it is:
You hold them by their feet, and then you turn them upside down...
If they try to curl up they are a male, if they don’t care and just allow it they are female. I tried it with my 2 and it showed them being both females...

I've found it to be completely random as well. I've tried this with 9 baby silkies, and which birds curl vs. which birds relax have had no correlation to which sex they turn out to be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Silkies4Life1216]

Hey guys, does this sound right to you?
Incubation: 4 1/2 days so far
Humidity: was 30, now 45ish...
Temp: 37.5 C

 

[Hinotori]

Hey guys, does this sound right to you?
Incubation: 4 1/2 days so far
Humidity: was 30, now 45ish...
Temp: 37.5 C

Looks good at 45% and 37.5C. That's what I run mine at all the way through. I have a forced air incubator.