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SILKIE CHICKEN HOW TO

If you see a chick staring you strait in the eye, you can make a guess that they are male. You can see that the male's beak is strait with a sharp angle down at the end, while the female's has a gradual curve and is much shorter.įirst, Roosters are more bold than the girls. The rooster beak is longer and straighter while the hen beak is shorter and curvier (see in the pictures below). It was correct for three of the five silkies I tested it on.įor this there is two kinds of beaks, the 'rooster beak' and the 'hen beak'. You should best use this as a extra method that is more for fun than anything. Some say it works almost perfectly, others claim it is useless. Nobody really knows if this method works or not. In the US silkies can only be found in bantam size, but in other places (such as the UK) silkies are recognized in bantam and standard size.

This isn't the most accurate way to sex silkies, and I am going to guess that this method is right about 80 percent of the time.ĭon't get confused between standard and bantam size. However, I have one pullet who is the same size as my smaller cockerel. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, but most the time boys are bigger than girls. You can see this handsome rooster's long, flowing streamers clearly in this photo, along with a huge comb and waddles. See how the rooster's hackles are much shinier and longer. See the darker feathers that drape down around the blue cockerel's neck area? Those are the hackles/streamers. Hackle feathers are the feathers on the back of your chicken's neck. Notice how the pullet's crest feathers poof out in every direction while the cockerel's are more combed back.īoth boy and girl chickens have hackles, but rooster hackles (on silkies, often called 'streamers') are much longer. You can tell she is female by the small size of her comb at this age.įemale pompoms are normally very fluffy and round, while the boys' crests look more pulled back, like they were brushed back.įemale above, male below. (Picture provided by Hughes Wildlife Farm) If your silkie's comb is this big than you can be 99.9 percent sure they are a rooster. The older they are, the bigger their comb. Just remember that a rooster at two weeks at age is going to have a smaller comb than one at four weeks. Roosters always have bigger combs than females.

You can see how the rooster stands tall while the pullet hunches by his side.Ĭombs are a biggest giveaway. These aren't silkies (they are spangled Old English Game bantams), but I chose this picture because it is a very good demonstration of posture. (These silkie chicks are buff, but the lighting is making them look white.) Guessing by their posture, the boy is on the left and the girl on the right. Notice how tall and proud this cockerel stands. You can see how the dark blue cockerel stands taller than the buff pullet. Here are some pictures to help you understand: Roosters tend to stand taller than the females, even as chicks. I prefer looking for hackles, but this is probably my second choice. Some people use this method as their sole purpose of sexing their silkies.

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Note: the pictures in here are NOT for free use, all of them are mine or from others who I got permission from. And then, of course, there is male, female, boy, and girl. Males over a year old are call 'cocks' and under a year 'cockerels'. In this article I will call female chickens over a year old 'hens' and under a year 'pullets'. But remember that in sexing chicks it is all guesswork (unless you vent or feather sex correctly). The methods in here can be used by anybody, no need for veterinary experience or certain genes. There is also feather sexing, but that is only accurate when the chick's parents have the right genes, and if they are from stores and hatcheries you can never be sure of that. It is about 90 percent accurate, however, most hatcheries and stores in America don't use vent sexing on bantams because it's harder and the chicks seem more fragile (though for their size they seem plenty tough to me). Vent sexing is what most stores and hatcheries use to confirm the gender of their chicks, and it can only be attempted on day one of the chick's life. Of course, there is vent sexing, but that should only be done by an expert as it can be dangerous to the chick.

SILKIE CHICKEN HOW TO

Searching around, I found that there are no articles on how to sex silkies on BYC (BackYardChickens)!!! I decided that I would do it myself. Surprisingly, once I tried it, it didn't seem that hard. When I first got my silkie chicks I searched for everything about them, especially about sexing them, as I had heard that silkies are very hard to sex.

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