Are you POSITIVE you can't sex SILKIE CHICKS????

Poultryprincess · Post by **Poultryprincess** » Wed May 04, 2016 8:43 am

I have always heard you Can't sex Silkies until they are at least 4 / 5 MONTHS old
I've been watching the silkies & I can see there IS a difference!

Some of the 2 week old chicks have a tiny little round mound on their behind.
Others have sprigs of Tail feathers about 1/2 an inch long sticking up.
The silkies with the obvious tail feathers are Taller & fuller bodies.
( also braver, they come running to me first )
** Is this NOT an indication of a MALE bird??? **

NOW ~ seeing the differences in the tail feathers leads to Another musing.
When I hatched EEs, some chicks grew their Tail feathers faster & longer than the others.
I was Positive they were Males, but they were FEMALES!

SOOOOO - silkies with obvious tail feather growth would be ?????
:?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Wed May 04, 2016 9:09 am

In general, female chicks seem to grow out their feathers before the males. So the chicks with longer tails and wing feathers could be females. Males tend to grow their comb and wattles faster and they colour up a bit sooner than the females, males combs will be redder/darker than the females much faster. I think that this is just a guide and not 100% reliable though. If you can mark your chicks, guess which are male and which are female as soon as you can, and then confirm later when you are sure. Males also tend to have slightly heavier legs and a different stance and build than the females, at least in the standard sized chicks (not sure about bantams) which you can notice fairly quickly as well.

Doug The Chickenman · Post by **Doug The Chickenman** » Wed May 04, 2016 11:27 am

In my show quality silkies I can't tell the sex until they lay an egg or they crow. This is typically in the 5-6 month age.
There are hints earlier but I have seen many that we though were one sex and banded that way and turn out to be the opposite sex.
There are behavioral traits but they are not accurate. Some will say to look for streamers on the roo's this also is not always accurate.

Wait until they crow or lay an egg and see if you are right. maybe use some thing to Id who you think is who.

madison174 · Post by **madison174** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:03 pm

I've found some I can tell sooner than others, but not always reliably. We had one named Pixie....who we wondered was a boy (stance, body language and sch) so we put 'him' in with the boys and renamed him Patrick. 2 days later there was an egg. Pixie is a lovely girl....with a unique stance...but definitely a girl!

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Wed May 04, 2016 5:22 pm

You should post pictures and have us guess!

Silkie Sue · Post by **Silkie Sue** » Wed May 04, 2016 9:51 pm

I love this game!!!!

Poultryprincess · Post by **Poultryprincess** » Thu May 05, 2016 12:24 am

I just don't think I have the space to keep ALL eighteen chicks.
I had always planned on selling about 1/2 of the chicks (but keeping all the showgirls)
I already have 12 full grown silkie / showgirl birds ( 3 different flocks )
Also my Standard size flock of 14
PLUS I'm loading the incubator THIS WEEK!

BUT it would be Wonderful IF we play the game!
How old do they need to be, right now they are only 2 weeks old.

It would be FABULOUS "IF" Tails = Female (*o*) Oh yeah!!!!
There is only 3 White Showgirl chicks & they ALL have tails!
There is only 2 Blue Showgirl chicks & 1 has a tail.

Post by **WLLady** » Thu May 05, 2016 4:29 pm

Fast feathering is sex linked...so girls carrying fast feathering have longer wing feathers and earlier tail feathering than the boys. This is usually true in mixes but in purebreds unless2 lines are crossed-one with fast and one with slow males and females will feather at the same rate. If lines of the breeds are bred together-1 with fast and 1 carrying only slow then the kids can be feather sexed. Many purebred lines are not mixed fast and slow so cannot be told apart. So it depends on your birds and their background. Major hatcheries sometimes do run fast and slow lines...but most smaller breeders either dont have room or just dont carry different fast and slow lines.

Poultryprincess · Post by **Poultryprincess** » Thu May 05, 2016 4:50 pm

WLLady ~ ummmm WOW!
You sure do know alot about genetics (*o*)
So IF I follow what you are saying....all my Showgirl chicks are Mixed Breeds, Right?
Which means "maybe" they are Feather Sex-linked???
I mean that would be Freakin' AWESOME "IF" it works out.
I will have to make a note in my book so I would know for Next time.

I have 2 different SHOWGIRL roosters
The roosters are with SILKIE hens
SG x Silkie

Also have a PARTIDGE SILKIE Rooster
who is with a SHOWGIRL hen
Silkie x SG

SO Both MIXED breeds "Maybe"

Post by **poultry_admin** » Thu May 05, 2016 5:29 pm

Ok, so this really does call for a game now.
If you put the pictures up for individuals, we can make it a happy guessing game (not anonymous if you like) where people can vote on what they think the gender is. I'll be glad to help out with the voting part if you need it. All we need is a first set of pictures and for you to be able to identify THE chicken in a few weeks down the road so that we can put the adult picture against it.
Hopefully we all learn something as we go along and get better at this guessing game.

Off Topic

If anyone has a kid who has to write a school report, doing the stats on this and identifying different voting strategies would be a fun one....Just saying... How do I who has no clue vote? Do I go with the "experts"? Do I form my own opinion? How many voters are better than random?
Sounds like the stock market to me...