[drumcrow]

hi all
iam going to get some silkies in next week there around 12wks old does anybody know what to look far in a 12wk silkie to know who's who.see i want to get pairs. (male/female)
its easyer on other breeds.

[Foxy]

Oh they can be interesting to sex...what you need to do is take a piccy while you are there (on your phone) send it to one of us to upload to the forum... then hang around there for a few hours while we all think about it.....

maybe not half of us will agree the girl is a boy...the other half..the boy is a girl...some clever so and so will say nope definately two boys!!!

[too many girls]

Oh they can be interesting to sex...what you need to do is take a piccy while you are there (on your phone) send it to one of us to upload to the forum... then hang around there for a few hours while we all think about it.....

maybe not half of us will agree the girl is a boy...the other half..the boy is a girl...some clever so and so will say nope definately two boys!!!

  yep, that's the way to go

take a good look at the top of the beak, we were able to sex our silkie chicks because the start of the boys comb was thicker and set a bit further back than the girls, hope this helps.

[Foxy]

Oh they can be interesting to sex...what you need to do is take a piccy while you are there (on your phone) send it to one of us to upload to the forum... then hang around there for a few hours while we all think about it.....

maybe not half of us will agree the girl is a boy...the other half..the boy is a girl...some clever so and so will say nope definately two boys!!!

  yep, that's the way to go

take a good look at the top of the beak, we were able to sex our silkie chicks because the start of the boys comb was thicker and set a bit further back than the girls, hope this helps.

TMG haven't you got a lot of boys with girls names?

[too many girls]

that's the polands the silkies have appropriate names, the 6 chicks (even tho we know who's what we can't tell who's who so they are all called Dave )

[drumcrow]

Thanks for that foxy...... if any body else has any good suggestions please let me know. that would be great.

[Chookiechook]

And even when you think you have it sussed..... they can 'change' sex at the drop of a hat!!!

One of my hens ... ha ha ..... was the henniest looking silkie going, and in the space of about 2 weeks (when 26 weeks old) changed into a lovely cockerel

So  dont count your hens till they have laid!!!

[batcatz]

Wattles should be v small in a hen.

[IMOmimey]

I breed silkies, and have done for a while, and they still end up the oposite gender. I have found I can start picking out a cockerel from the flock at around 10-12 weeks. I find one (or sometimes more) takes on the dominant role, and grows comb and wattles quite noticeably, but then are almost impossible to tell from feathering! 

Then when I seperate the dominant cockerel, another will take over and develop his comb, and so it continues until only hens left.  Attempted treading of hens does not help, as some hens do this to show dominance.  Equally, hens AND cockerels could have display fights when they are young....you know what teenagers are like on a saturday night!

If you pay the price of a hen, most breeders should swap if it ends up being a boy. You dont want to get related birds, and this is often difficult if buying them from the same breeder. BUT, you could always advertise your cockerel to swap for unrelated.

To summarise, no way of selecting hen silkies at 12 weeks, they either crow or lay!!
(I have one hybrid that does both however )