What gender is this?

[jzervas92]

Hi everyone, my 7 month old silkie has started to become really aggressive with the other chickens. Today I went down to the coop just to check up on them and she ran after my sliver gray dorking, grabbed the back of her neck feathers, and tried to pull them out. The sliver gray dorking was able to get her off without any feathers being pulled, but I never saw her do that before. Then later on during the day she went after my americana and was able to pull her feathers out. I grabbed her and seperated her from the other chickens for a while, but then when I let her out she did it again! I really thought she was a hen because she has a small comb, hasn't even tried to crow (also she sounds like a hen), and she doesn't have any streamers on the back of her head. I really don't know what to think she wasn't even trying to mount the chickens it looked more like she was trying to hurt them.

These pictures were taken in mid October. She is the darkest one at the ends. Unfortunately the light gray silkie got killed in a raccoon attack

 

[DavidKerk]

How big are her wattles? They are a kind of good way of telling on silkies.

 

[jzervas92]

I think she's bearded she has feathers covering where her wattles would be showing. I'm going to get a better close up when she goes into the coop tonight.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Definitely need better pictures. Get a comb, full body and head shot from the side. It'll be easy to tell if its 7 months old

It very much sounds like a cockerel. For what its worth, bearded Silkie roos are supposed to have small combs and wattles and they're very slow growers so typically start all of those roosterish things much later than other breeds.

 

[ramirezframing]

I have a silkie hen that has killed a few silkie roosters. The rest of silkies don't play either and are worse than most my roosters about fighting. If your silkie is a hen, she might be trying to tell the others that she is the boss hen. But as Howfunky said, we need better pictures.

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

Silkies are difficult to tell, even as adults, but by the tail it looks like a rooster to me.

 

[BantamLover21]

Silkies are difficult to sex until they either crow or lay; closer and more photos would help.

 

[jzervas92]

Thank you for all the responses! I finally got some good photos! I found a white egg today in the nesting boxes, but it could of been from my americana she hasn't started laying yet either.

 

[jzervas92]

Still no crowing but the more I look at her the more she starts to look like a rooster!

 

[kcaywood]

She looks like a hen to me, though her comb is good-sized. I had a black Silkie hen that looked almost exactly like her. The white egg could be hers or your Dorking's, but probably not the Ameracauna's.