Too younge to sex silkies?

[mpgo4th]

i got a dozen assorted silkies this summer. They are 8 weeks old now. I lost one to my beagle and out of the 11 left I think I have 7 males. Is 8 weeks too early to call hen or roo on these guys? I'm going to get rid of most of them before I'm feeding them all winter but I don't want to jump the gun and give away a bird that might be an egg layer.

 

[lightchick]

8 weeks is pretty young. Do you have any pics?

 

[mpgo4th]

I don't. I have 24 chickens in a 1800sq foot pen. It's hard enough to grab them and try to check sex on them.

 

[donrae]

Getting birds at night is how I do most of my handling. When they're sleeping, they're easy to catch

I think they're going to be too young to tell for sure, unless it's by color. I had a good idea who was a cockerel at 3 months old, by the shading on the wing and the comb.

 

[mpgo4th]

What do you look for on the wings? I'm going by comb size and shape. I have one white cockerel who has a very large purple comb and wattles. The rest are black covered and very in size.

 

[nayeli]

Last time I had silkie chicks I did toe sexing. I'm not sure if it was 100% accurate because it was impossible for me to tell my white silkies apart at that time and I don't remember/know who I thought was a hen or a roo... I do know I came up with 3 roos with the toe sexing and ended up with 3 roos for real!

Its not 100% but I think it works as well as anything else!