Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Having a blast with my newest additions to the barn: 3 Silkies around 16 weeks or age - so far one is a hen having just laid her first egg (is that early for a Silkie?), have no idea on the other two, but hoping they are hens also.

Also have 7 very generic chickens a family member hatched out for a school class that ended up here. So far 2 of them are roosters, they started crowing at about 6 weeks - not sure if that is early or not but I did have 2 Silkie roosters that didn't start crowing until they were 16 weeks.... which is why I had hopes they were Hens. I optimistically named one Roxanne, then she/he started crowing.....

The young chicks are way different from the Silkies, they are aggressive, cunning, they are escape artists and drive us nuts trying to contain them. On the other hand my 3 Silkies are quiet, know their names, sit quietly in my office in the barn communing with me.

Welcome to PTO!
Hope you enjoy the forum! yes, some cockerels will start showing the crowing ability stupid early. I once had a turkey poult that was strutting at 3 weeks old. boys! lol. I have some boys that have started trying to crow (sounding more like strangled yodelling) at about 5 weeks which was a combination of disappointing and hilarious at the same time. 20 weeks is "normal" for new eggs from pullets, but range from about 13 weeks (leghorns are early) to sometimes never (like my favorite welbar....sigh....she's going on 2 years old and i don't think she's ever laid anything, but she's super pretty....and eats bugs).

Well, welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy it here!

Hello and welcome. Hope you like the forum and ask questions if you need to. We don't judge here.

Well good day and welcome eh! WLLady - $10 says that your hen is not fully a hen. "indeterminate sex" does occur in nature.

oh yes ponypoor - behaviour can be very different between chicken breeds - here is a good breed reference http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html