Sexing a Silkie Chick

You have probably heard a few times if you found your way here, that sexing silkie chicks isn't possible. Through my experiences, I have found that I was able to learn and fairly quickly, how to sex the chicks.

Sexing Silkie Chicks

There are many methods and some are more guaranteed than others. The most accurate method is vent sexing which I do not do and I would not wish for any of my readers to either, it's invasive and a bit hard to learn, doing it incorrectly can hurt your chick.

All the other methods are able to help you make an educated guess, it is still possible it turned out you were wrong when one day your Hen starts to crow but, I have found that I have gotten really good at sexing using the methods I will share, I have never been wrong yet.

In looking at chicks of other "regular" breeds that show sexual dimorphism at hatching, this can allow you to see other things that each sex has in common besides the appearance of the feathers. You will notice the posture and behaviour is completely different in the girls and boys. We can take that information and apply some of it to silkies for sexing.

The yellow chicks (wyandotte) are easy to sex because of the comb that shows so early in the males. If you look closely though you can also tell in other ways. The boy is standing tall and looking around a lot, where as the girl is smaller and squatty looking. You may even notice in this picture that the boy has his legs very close together. Out of the grey chicks, the furthest to the right is a boy, while the other two are girls. He isn't posturing in the picture but you can see his wings are shorter and he is bigger than the other two.

The wyandotte chick is easy to spot here, and you can visually tell it is a roo.The young silkie chicks are behaving in typical fashion for their sexes. The two girls stick together while the young roo finds a higher spot to watch and see what is going on. This nosey little fellow did turn out to be a roo.

The one in the middle is curious, stretches up his head to try and posture, the girls are far less curious and often squat.

SOme of the same chicks pictured above, grown up. The porcelain and partridge are both girls as was expected, while the white one (splash) , was indeed a roo

Wings and combs

Wing feathers are often used in many chicken breeds to sex chicks just after hatching up to a few days old. If you hold the wing out you see more feathers starting often with two lengths and the wing is longer in girl chicks. The wings will continue to be a clue as the chick grows, the girls wings will be longer, reaching toward the tail.

In boys the wing feathers appear stubby and short with one row of feathers starting typically. As the chick grows the wings will remain shorter and smaller than the girl counterparts wings.

I have found that even in silkies I can still note the differences in the wings right away.

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Combs are noted to be different in many chicken breeds. It isn't as obvious in silkies but,over time a keeper will start to notice that the recession of where the comb will be is greater on boy chicks than girl chicks.

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Posture and Behaviour

If you have several chicks that are straight run together, you will quickly be able to tell. Watching the chicks for awhile is all you really need to do, while you look for the signs.

In this picture you can see in these 1 week old chicks, the one in the middle is bigger than the other two and holds his head a little different than the other two, and he was so curious while the other two were not. He did turn out to be a roo.

Girl chicks hold their legs further apart, keep a squatting position, they don't tend to extend their neck or push out their chests at all at a young age. They are more inclined to group up with others in the centre or back of the grouping. If you have a group, you will notice the girls are naturally just smaller than the boys.

This fresh clutch of babies appear to mostly be hens at first look, As I watched them however, The little black one is far more curious than the others, so while I don't see physical differences by just looking at them here, I suspect that more outgoing personality one will end up being a Roo. At this stage I am undecided on the white one, it squats more like a girl but it holds its feet close togther, watching it a little longer would have helped but it went to a new home shortly after this picture.

Boy chicks know they are boys right from hatching, in that they are posturing and positioning and even behaving as boys right away. They will work on extending their necks, looking like they want to see above the others. The chest will puff out as well especially if startled. They are more likely to flap their wings often than girl chicks. In the group, you will see the boys on the outer edges of the group or even in front of the group as if to be supervising the scene. You may catch them in a moment of practice watching the girls, they will stand by and supervise when food is given at first before joining the girls.

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If you tap on the outside of the brooding container, the boys will likely raise their heads, extend their necks, puff out the chest...they may even come over to investigate. The girls will behave with no interest or huddling from being startled.

As they grow you will be able to tell in other ways that will confirm if you were right when you studied their behaviour and postures. The comb, called a walnut in Silkies, develops more and faster in the boys. As early as a few weeks old you may start to notice this.

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Once a few months old you will start to see the neck feathers coming in that will tell you what the boys are going to look like, the thicker, shiny feathers on boys is easily noted comparing next to girls. The tails grow in differently too with a wide fluffy bottom coming in on the girls and a high pointed tail with silkie feathering in boys, some feathers will grow longer on the top of the boy tails.

And finally the day arrives that you can be completely sure in this technique; when the boy crows and the girls lay an egg.

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In conclusion we see how we can make a really good guess, truthfully this is not a guarantee of course but, it can give you some insight on early guessing that has a good chance of accuracy.

I hope this was helpful to other chicken keepers out there. I love watching and spending time with my chickens, it is a great hobby to have and comes with rewards of fresh eggs.

If you enjoyed this post, please visit my other posts on chickens

Keeping Chickens

Cheetah, the hen raised chick

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