How do I tell rooster silkies from hens

Ok, the silkie I thought was a rooster just laid an egg. One of them is crowing (if you can call a silkie noise a crow), but he never does it unless our backs are turned. I looked for spurs, but they all have tiny buds, I thought that the ones with wattles were roosters, but one of thoes laid the egg. I keep asking them, but they believe in the don't ask, don't tell. (They must know what generally happens to roosters around here.

I am finding that silkies are the most delightful of chickens. They are quiet, don't go over the fence to the flower beds and are really friendly. A friend brought a woman with severe MS over last week. We sat in the yard watching the animals and she was courious about the silkies, so I brought one over and put it on her lap. The silly bird sat there as long as untill we removed her. She even fell asleep while being petted! We thought it was a fluke, so we each got one an they all did the same thing. All the time we were petting them, they were cooing like little doves. What a wonderful gift they have been!

What a riot. By the end of the afternoon, the deer showed up and was eating french fries out of her lap.

Friends freequently bring sick, handicapped or mentaly ill people over to my yard and the animals seem to know that they need extra attention. One scitzophrenic (wow, can't spell that without spell check) gentleman just sits in the back yard and the animals come to him. He rarely ever speaks to humans, but we hear him just talking up a storm to the animals. Annother friend brought her brother who was in the end stages of cancer over and he spent hours in the back yard. (we found him snoozing with the peacock pearched on the back of his wheel chair). He had a smile a mile wide when he left (with a wreath of flowers on his head) The next morning she called to tell me that he went to sleep still talking about the day and never woke up, the flowers were hanging on the head board. What a blessing it was to give him that afternoon.

Ok, sorry about leaving the subject....now, about thoes silkies?

Yes, please anyone who has info on this let me know also. Just this morning I got up and overnight my little black frizzle silkie "Baby" sprouted some wattles and her comb is not exactly small. I almost cried when I thought she was a boy, because I CAN NOT have roosters. So if there is any hope that she could still be a she, that would be great!

I've been told that it's really hard to tell the difference. One of my sexed silkie chicks appears to have a rounder thicker comb than the rest. I'm concerned as I paid more for the sexing service. I read that even chicks that appear to be hens can be roos and vice versa, so you might have to wait with the silkies until they start crowing or laying.

My silkie that laid the egg has a thick round comb. One of the others had absolutely no comb. Two of mine are larger than the rest, I wonder if that means anything?

You may not even have to wory if it crows, it's not very loud and mine doesn't do it very often. Believe me, I've been trying to catch him at it to see who is doing it.

Well, this is a tough one. the best bred silkies have had their secondary sex characteristics sort of bred out of them, if my understanding.

Overall the boys a usually somewhat bigger. They have more developed combs and feather crests. and they crow! My head silkie roo has started doing the little mating shuffle dance at the ladies although I've only caught him actually mounting once. He missed by quite a bit.

also, if you already have roosters, you could let one out and pick the maybe rooster up. If it squawks a lot at the rooster appears upset by that, it is probably a hen. If he doesnt care, or if he comes over to peck its head, it is probably another roo.

If you watch them interact with the other chickens, roosters seem to stand taller. they are more on the lookout than the hens are. at least, that is what I have noticed about General Tso, our silkie roo. Good luck!

Females tend to have a round pom pom on the head where as males have little swept back strands hanging from the pom pom.

On mine the comb is much more pronounced on the male. The beard tends to hide the wattles, although on my beardless... I have several they are evident on both male and female.

All that being said silkies are known to be a great challenge to sex 100%

This site has some great head shot comparisons...
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Silkies/BRKSilkies.html

Julie

i totally agree with julie

silkies are one of the hardest to tell but are so much fun to play guess the sex. post pics of them if ya can and we'll see if we can all help ya figure it out. my hardest to guess is my showgirl babies and they are about 3mths old i'm just now learning which are boys and which are girls by looks and how they act.
silkies

Julie, had it all figured out, but I'd forgotten. Both the boys are crowing now. This morning it was like the battle of the bands. Oc course, the crowing was nothing compaired to the peacock pecking on my bedroom window. He must want his breakfast eary as every morning for a week he has flown up to the roof abd come to my window. How the heck he knows I'm in there is beyond be, but I have a spray bottle ready for him tomorrow morning. Maybe he started daylight savings time early!

rotfl, that would be a sight to see!!! every morning i wake up to a pair of cardinals chirping loud outside my window on the feeders. i think i'd have a heart attack wakeing up to a peacock especially if it screamed at the window, i'd be on the floor and under the bed real quick, lmbo. i would love to have peas they are so gorgous!! what colors of them do you raise?
silkie

Only one peacock and he's still juvenile (may not make it to adulthood, if he doesn't stay away from my window). He's blue. I hope to find a female next year. He's really not at all as noisy as we were told he would be. We call him the "Mayor" as he thinks he's the boss of the yard. Yesterday he was tryng to herd Buckwheat and Buckwheat got fed up and chased the peacock into the tree. He sat there and pouted for about an hour. Then someone else got out of line and he was right back at it.
Most of the time he makes a "BEEEP" sound. When the and his brother (we lost the brother) were little, we named them Beep and Toot after the sounds they made.

The funniest thing in the yard right now is when the peacock and the Narragansett turkey display for each other. (the female turkeys just roll their eyes and ignore them both. They're no fools)

is he an india blue? those are so pretty. someday if i ever live in the country,lol i want india blues and cameos those are my favorite colors of them!! have you ever seen a peacock pheasant?? my dh wants some of them. they look like miniature india blues and are so kool!!
silkie

Here are pics of "Baby" my black frizzle. We should start a pool to see what he/she turns out to be. Her personality is wonderful and sweet and she loves to be held. But the comb and waddles are really concerning to me. If she is a he, he needs to find a new home. And mommy will need more sessions with the Chicken Mommy Therapist. LOL!

I should add that she is only about 6 weeks old, at most 7 weeks.

See, she is still so small she fits in the palm of my hand!

what a cuttie, i love frizzles!! my first question is what kind of frizzle is it? is it a cochin or another breed?

Great frizz !!!

I ordered frizzle eggs in the early spring. They were frizzle mixed with sq banty cochin (cuz ya can't breed frizz to frizz).... anywhoo fertility sucked and I only got one viable egg out of the 6.

Got a cute banty cochin pullet from that egg who, by the way, just laid her first egg yesterday. She has no frizzle but she's super sweet.

The egg looked perfectly round like a chocolate marble, very dark.

Julie

Well..............she's supposed to be a silkie. Yet another feed store supposedly pure breed. (See Regrets thread). Any ideas on male/female????

So is it suppose to be a pure silkie or a sizzle (silkie x frizzle) ??

Julie

I am laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes, because apparently from your question, she is not!LOL So she went from a frizzle silkie hen to a he/she frizzle something or other! LOL! Yet another Feed store blunder, (see Regrets thread). It is definitely a bantam of some sort, because it is puny compared to the others. Any ideas on what crosses or what sex?

Well a sizzle is a silkie frizzle (a silkie crossed with a frizzled silkie). A frizzle often times is a mix somewhere along the line, in my opinion. You should never breed a frizzle to frizzle which is why they usually seem to be listed as frizzle x cochin or silkie etc.... You can make any breed a frizzle standard or bantam.

Looking at the pic I don't see any silkie features. I would say closer to banty cochin frizzle or some such. Are the feet / legs feathered ? A cochin would have that type feathering as would a silkie. But the comb appears to be too unlike a silkie. Just my opinion. It sort of looks like a cockerel but again very possibly too early to tell.

Either way it's very cute !!!

Julie

Here's my frizzle lady. She's a frizzle cochin.

i was gonna buy some hatching eggs for sizzles here is a link to where i was gonna get some it explains it better than i could and has some pics mabe that would help. http://www.knightschicks.com/sizzles.html

i love your frizzies they are both gorgous babies!! i thought boy and frizzled cochin but look at that site and see if ya can figure it out, i got kinda confused reading it. if i'm going to start raiseing them i'd love to find out more about them so i know how to breed them next year.

silkie hens crow too!

Went wandering and lost my question.

Backyard chickens had a Pinterest post on sexing, too, but none are silkies or frizzles. Was wondering if you guys had watched for any characteristics to the breed? Cant add pic from edit:( brb

This message was edited Jan 17, 2016 2:38 PM

For some straight breeds