Aww look at those little cuties! I love your roo too, he looks like such a beautiful boy (love those frizzled feathers of his)!
I'll post a pic of Chubs when I can get one.Silkies have a reputation as being tough to sex. 10 weeks may be a bit early to get a very good idea but you might see some comb growth in the cockerels and you should start being on the lookout for streamers starting to grow (longer feathers that grow out of the back of the crest in males).
My silkie cockerels seem to be all over the place in how soon they develop. Sometimes they make it really obvious early on and other times they can be really slow to mature. I've heard of some silkie cockerels being near a year old before very experienced silkie keepers could tell the gender. I have yet to raise any males that weren't obviously male by 6 months myself though.
I grabbed some pictures of some of my silkie grow outs to hopefully help give an idea of what you might expect to see on a male and female close to your silkies age. As well as some pictures of some older silkie males with more obvious streamers. I could be wrong about the genders of the young ones but the suspected male is looking very much like a male and the suspected female is looking very girly at this point.
View attachment 2105741
Probable Pullet, 10 1/2 weeks old (note how the crest is fairly round and full, not swept back looking and with no signs of streamers, new feathers coming in can sometimes look like streamers but they won't be nearly as long)
View attachment 2105744
Probable cockerel 10 1/2 weeks old (the crest is more swept back and less round with streamers coming out of the back)
View attachment 2105750
Probable pullets comb (not much development, nearly flat, please ignore the bumpiness as it is due to comb modifier genes and not related to gender)
View attachment 2105752
Probable cockerels comb (raised up and more bulbous)
View attachment 2105758
More obvious streamers on an almost 12 week old cockerel (sorry for the blurry picture)
View attachment 2105760
Streamers on a 6 month old cockerel (his are extra obvious as they are white tipped). His comb is quite large for his age but even smaller combed silkie males usually have some comb development by this time.
I hope I was able to help! It may be harder to tell by crest shape if your silkie isn't extra fluffy or slower to develop (a lot of hatchery silkies aren't as fluffy). I do believe the streamers should still be an indication though as well as the comb development or lack thereof. I'm always happy to try to guess the gender if you'd like to post some pictures of your little silkies comb and crest as well.
@LynnaePB have you some very good info! You can find more ways to see them here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/sexing-silkies.75451/Silkies have a reputation as being tough to sex. 10 weeks may be a bit early to get a very good idea but you might see some comb growth in the cockerels and you should start being on the lookout for streamers starting to grow (longer feathers that grow out of the back of the crest in males).
My silkie cockerels seem to be all over the place in how soon they develop. Sometimes they make it really obvious early on and other times they can be really slow to mature. I've heard of some silkie cockerels being near a year old before very experienced silkie keepers could tell the gender. I have yet to raise any males that weren't obviously male by 6 months myself though.
I grabbed some pictures of some of my silkie grow outs to hopefully help give an idea of what you might expect to see on a male and female close to your silkies age. As well as some pictures of some older silkie males with more obvious streamers. I could be wrong about the genders of the young ones but the suspected male is looking very much like a male and the suspected female is looking very girly at this point.
View attachment 2105741
Probable Pullet, 10 1/2 weeks old (note how the crest is fairly round and full, not swept back looking and with no signs of streamers, new feathers coming in can sometimes look like streamers but they won't be nearly as long)
View attachment 2105744
Probable cockerel 10 1/2 weeks old (the crest is more swept back and less round with streamers coming out of the back)
View attachment 2105750
Probable pullets comb (not much development, nearly flat, please ignore the bumpiness as it is due to comb modifier genes and not related to gender)
View attachment 2105752
Probable cockerels comb (raised up and more bulbous)
View attachment 2105758
More obvious streamers on an almost 12 week old cockerel (sorry for the blurry picture)
View attachment 2105760
Streamers on a 6 month old cockerel (his are extra obvious as they are white tipped). His comb is quite large for his age but even smaller combed silkie males usually have some comb development by this time.
I hope I was able to help! It may be harder to tell by crest shape if your silkie isn't extra fluffy or slower to develop (a lot of hatchery silkies aren't as fluffy). I do believe the streamers should still be an indication though as well as the comb development or lack thereof. I'm always happy to try to guess the gender if you'd like to post some pictures of your little silkies comb and crest as well.
My 2 day old silkieshey yall! this thread is posted for the love and dedication for us silkie people.we need more silkies in this leghorn populated world! post and share pictures of your awesome silkies on this thread!!
LETS SHOW OUR SILKIE PRIDE!!
The method I have been using with my roosters is listed below. One is a year old Old English Game bantam, a breed which is known to be rather aggresive, and he is doing as well as can be expected. The other is my silkie rooster and has never shown any sign of aggression at me or other humans. I have had several other silkie roosters who I only kept until they were 6 months old, and they didn't attack me but their hormones weren't really activated yet. Really I think it depends on the rooster, but I think silkies tend to be a little more chill.
