To all Silky owners?

[KalikoFarms]

How do you tell roo's from hens? I am new to this but hatching today started and I just realized I have no idea about how to tell. And I can officially say that I am in love and want more and more and more.
Thanks
Rita

 

[silkie_sue]

Quote:
Hi kalikopoodles
Silkies are addicting

As far as sexing them goes....they are very difficult to sex. I have a flock of whites I can tell from a month old and others that I think I have figured out and then they crow. Most will tell you if you want to be sure of the sex of your Silkie wait till it crows or lays an egg.
Happy hatching!

Suz

 

[KalikoFarms]

I am sitting here laughing my butt off to your response.........but thank you...Yes I want more and am going to order more eggs this next week. Thanks so much I have learned so much do to the information on here and one of the things I have been hearing is that Silkies are addictive. Now I know why. Since I have stop chuckling I have decided to name this on Alpha, I figure thats pretty gender free. Thanks so very much for the quick response.
Rita

 

[KalikoFarms]

Suz
I forgot to say that the ones I want the most are the show girls they are absolutely the bomb....
Rita

 

[wbruder17]

I have 2 silkies and I love them, constant broodies tho they may be. My Silkiie Mama is my "go to girl" whenever I want to hatch eggs. She will go broody whenever i tell her to!

However, on sexing them....I've seen roos that are the spitting image of my hens, so id say its really hard to tell. Either they lay, or they crow. Other than that, I've got no clue how to sex them. Other chickens, yes. I have been able to tell some as early as a week or 2 old, but not with Silkies.

 

[Desert Rooster]

Silkies are the most difficult breed of chickens to sex, you really cant tell until it either lays an egg, or crows

 

[Cosmopolis Chick]

Maybe everyone who has some freshly hatched chicks will weigh in on The Upside-down Method.

Please?
I read on here - somewhere - to test new chicks as far as sex by holding just one upside down on it's back in the palm of your hand.
Supposedly female = relaxes, male = struggles.

Well, my Silkie hatched out 6 chicks, 4 Marans, and 2 Silkies. (I BOUGHT the eggs)
I gave them The Upside-down Method test and I expect one dark Maran and one silver-color Silkie to be male

.
The other four did not struggle, in fact seemed ready to sleep.
We shall see.
Anyone else want to try?
I don't know if it matters exactly how many days old they are.

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
So you caught the silkie and showgirl bug !!!!

Good for you !!! You are not alone !!

I have both silkies and showgirls. They are right when they say they are the hardest birds to sex but I find Ameracaunas (sp) harder to sex !!!

Alot of my silkie and showgirl roosters have more of a slicked back topknot and more of my females have a vaulted skull but I have had males with vaulted skulls.

Don't be fooled into thinking if you hatch 20 chicks that you will end up with 10 roos and 10 hens !!! Nature isn't that simple !! Or kind !!! I tend to hatch out 75% + roosters !!!

I will be listing white showgirls, partridge showgirls and various color silkies in the near future. Let me know if and what you may be interested in. I ship in styrofoam lined boxes with ice pack during summer weather.

I see you are a toy poodle lover as well ???? I love love love Poodles !!!

 

[drdoolittle]

Congrats on your silkies! I love them too and just got my first showgirls this past spring. Out of the 4 I got, one didn't make it and 2 of the 3 remaining were roos! I kept my favorite roo and the hen--------going to try hatching some myself next spring. I also have 2 self-blue silkies (think one's a roo) and 1 black bearded (was supposed to be a hen, but just started crowing yesterday), 2 BBS hens and 1 BBs roo. One of my hens is sitting eggs right now.

My favorite pic. of my SG roo, Einstein:

My BBS roo, The Gestapo:

 

[Time-Out]

Quote:
I didn't know this was a method for sexing chicks, but mine would prove it not to be anyway. My two sebrights (1 male, 1 female) go straight to sleep when I lay them upside down in my hand. I even took pics cos it's so cute. If I try that with the Friesians... it's SQUAWKSQUAWK KICKKICK, then "Ok, I give in. Put me down, please?"