SA gardener
Songster
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/4-week-old-silkies-gender.1544344/#post-26068856
The chicks in this thread both turned out female. The white one became lame and had to be put down (rooster, 4 weeks older than it, most likely tried mating with it and hurt it) . I am 100 percent sure it was female nonetheless because despite not getting an egg (as it had to be put down young). It was in every way resemblant of a female silky. I had males to compare it to Also 2 people in the thread agreed
The buff (caramel/black) one despite the somewhat advanced 4 week old comb development, ir turned out female. I saw plenty of signs it was female. I included a picture of it as currently is. Got my first egg on Tuesday. 7 months that is. Time flies, felt like yesterday I had to protect it from my cat and now I have to protect my cat from it, lol
My tips for sexing (to get females) are : go to the farm and inspect each chick individually. Choose the best 2 (females) that have the feminine traits people have outlined here on this forum out of 20. I picked 2 out of 16. It's mainly about comb development. No comb or tiny combs relative to the rest are your best bet. I strongly feel the ones I didnt pick were all males. In the silky world it seems that 50/50 ratio of males to females is not holding. I'd say it's probably 3 males to 1 female or less. I had to sell my silky roosters (not included in that thread) for a loss as they develop extremely fast compared to the hens and can break the hens legs and bones with their persistent mating attempts. So I sold them for R150 ($8). Spend probably R200 ($11) on them though . Sad to see them go but that had to
The chicks in this thread both turned out female. The white one became lame and had to be put down (rooster, 4 weeks older than it, most likely tried mating with it and hurt it) . I am 100 percent sure it was female nonetheless because despite not getting an egg (as it had to be put down young). It was in every way resemblant of a female silky. I had males to compare it to Also 2 people in the thread agreed
The buff (caramel/black) one despite the somewhat advanced 4 week old comb development, ir turned out female. I saw plenty of signs it was female. I included a picture of it as currently is. Got my first egg on Tuesday. 7 months that is. Time flies, felt like yesterday I had to protect it from my cat and now I have to protect my cat from it, lol
My tips for sexing (to get females) are : go to the farm and inspect each chick individually. Choose the best 2 (females) that have the feminine traits people have outlined here on this forum out of 20. I picked 2 out of 16. It's mainly about comb development. No comb or tiny combs relative to the rest are your best bet. I strongly feel the ones I didnt pick were all males. In the silky world it seems that 50/50 ratio of males to females is not holding. I'd say it's probably 3 males to 1 female or less. I had to sell my silky roosters (not included in that thread) for a loss as they develop extremely fast compared to the hens and can break the hens legs and bones with their persistent mating attempts. So I sold them for R150 ($8). Spend probably R200 ($11) on them though . Sad to see them go but that had to
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