Silkies - How Do You Tell Them Apart?

[renegaderidgefarm]

We Have Always Raised Old English Bantams And Now We Are Branching Out To New Areas.

Today, We Bought 4 Silkie Chicks And Need To Know How To Tell The Roos From The Hens.

Help!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Wait until they crow.

By 8 weeks you may be able to tell by the size difference. Roos are much larger.

Sexing a young silky is hard.

 

[Silkiefan]

yep, I got told a bunch of "old wives tales" about sexing them, but nothing worked... I had to rehome my black boy because of his noise... at 3 months he did start growing a lovely purple walnut comb, so that was my first clue. Then the crowing!!! BYC people told me several times that there really is no way of telling until they crow or lay an egg... Silkies are the hardest to sex...
of course, you MUST post pictures of the chicks!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I certainly cannot tell at 8 weeks, even on a very pet quality bird. Many of my boys are only a bit larger than the girls.

At 4-6 months you can start looking for streamers coming off the back of the crest and hackle; those are boys, and usually the first sign.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I can confidently say that in my experience by eight weeks I can sex a silkie based on size and posture with 80% accuracy. I usually hatch 6 to 12 silkies from the same stock so I can visibly see the size difference by comparing them to their brothers or sisters.

If you handed me a single 8 week old silkie from unknown stock it would be very difficult to sex with any degree of accuracy.

 

[jimnjay]

Now that is the 64,000 dollar question. Guessing the gender is part of their plot. We have to keep them so long to tell the boys from girls that we become attached to them and can't bear to get rid of them.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
eggsactly

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
OMG I never even thought of that. Evil little tribbles...

 

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

XD Im still cracking up at that evil silkie plot post. I swear its true. They are doing just that !