sexing silkie chicks – VJP Poultry

Gentle Silkies – Why You Need To Own This Breed

October 4, 2019October 8, 2019 by vjppoultry, posted in New Silkies

IMG_20190922_072155_883 I have owned and bred silkie chickens exclusively for over thirteen years. I started out with a typical backyard flock that included an assortment of different breeds of chicken. I saw and read about silkies on the internet and was instantly obsessed with them. I started out by purchasing some through our local feed mill. I was thrilled with them and was anxious to purchase a few more. I did some research and bought some quality stock from a local breeder who specializes in silkies. She recommended starting with a Blue/Black/Splash pen because you will not need to keep the colors separated. They will always breed true to those three colors. From there I branched out and now breed seven different colors of silkies.

Silkies are different from every other breed of chicken. That is what makes them so attractive to the average chicken owner. They are an ornamental chicken. They lay eggs like any other chicken, but they are not known as “layers” though they do lay about 100 eggs a year. They are eye candy in your flock. They have the WOW factor that makes people fall forever in love with them.

The temperament of silkies is what makes this breed a great pet. They are gentle and docile. They do not wander far from their food dish and are easy to find at the end of the day. They are great for families with children because they are easy to catch and easy to hold. They are often quieter than most other chicken breeds. Seniors love them because they are an easy pet and can even live indoors (provided they have chicken diapers.) They make great therapy birds. Just hugging them makes you feel better.

Silkies are called “Silkies” because of the softness of their feathers. They feel a lot like an angora rabbit when you pet them. This softness is caused by the fact that their feathers do not stick together with barbs as most bird’s feathers do. Silkies cannot fly because of this. I find this fact to be a plus in chicken owning. My first flock contained chickens that liked to fly onto tree branches at night. I was always trying to get them down out of the trees. Silkies cannot fly up to a high roosting bar but do like to sleep in a heap together on the floor at night.

Silkies have black skin and bones. They have a mulberry colored walnut comb and beautiful turquoise colored ear lobes. They have five toes and fluffy feathered feet. A fancy top knot crest in the shape of a powder puff for the girls and a slicked back Elvis look with streamers for the boys. Silkie chicks are often born with vaults which makes their crests look large for the first few weeks. Silkies are smaller than the average chicken and are classified as Bantams. Smaller means that you will be able to fit more into your coop!

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Originally silkies came from China. Marco Polo mentions “furry chickens” when he explored that area in the 1200s. Coming from the mountains of China, silkies do very well in cold weather. They have been very hardy in our Minnesota winters.

The variety of colors in the silkie world is what keeps people coming back for more. The Standard of Perfection lists White, Black, Buff, Blue, Splash, Gray, Partridge, Self Blue and Paint. These are the colors of silkies that can be shown in a poultry show. Breeders also have non accepted colors such as Red, Porcelain and Cuckoo. I find that people enjoy collecting different colored silkies for their backyard flocks. When buying chicks, my customers often ask for one of each color.

I enjoy showing silkies in poultry shows. One of the experiences you can’t miss is giving your silkie a bath and then fluffing them up with a hair dryer. You can trim their toenails and beaks and give them a true spa treatment. Make sure that your silkie can always see by trimming the feathers above and below their eyes.

One thing I have learned over the years is that silkie chicks can be fragile. I always recommend adding vitamins and electrolytes to their water. Adult silkies should be given a feed that is higher in protein such as a gamebird feed of at least 20% protein. Because of their vaulted skulls, silkies are prone to head injuries. Their gentle, quiet nature can also make them sitting ducks for predators. They do need to be watched when they are free ranging. They don’t bother other breeds but do tend to be picked on in a mixed flock due to their gentle nature.

Silkies are friendly and the perfect pet for families with young children. Raising chicks from a young age will increase your bird’s attachment to you. Treats are always welcome and are a great way to bond with your silkie. Gentle silkies are sweet and loving. I find them to be the perfect pet chicken.

For tips and tricks for raising outstanding silkies check out our Chicken Learning Center at VJPPoultry.com . VJP Poultry is an NPIP and state inspected hatchery located 30 miles north of St. Paul. We hatch out silkies all year long so we always have stock available. Like us on Facebook to get weekly updates on what we currently have for sale.

Victoria J. Peterson

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How to Perform a DNA test on your Silkie Chick and Determine its Sex.

June 25, 2018April 21, 2020 by vjppoultry, posted in New Silkies

20180613_103403-1 Silkie chicks are known to be very difficult to sex at a young age. An Avian DNA sex test is a scientific way to determine the gender of your baby chick before you become too emotionally attached to it knowing that if it is a rooster you will not be able to keep it depending on where you live.

Many people live in cities and towns with ordinances that prohibit roosters. Their crowing makes them unpopular with city officials. It would be wonderful to know the sex of your silkie chicks within the first week of life. You could, of course, wait until it crows or lays an egg but with silkie chicks that can take many months.

Many people try and sex silkie chicks based on feather sexing, appearance or behavior. None of these methods are always reliable. Feather sexing is something genetically bred into a breed of chicken. It has to do with the length of wing feathers. Not all chicken breeds can be feather sexed. However, some believe that early feathering of the wings and tail are an indication of a female. Because silkie’s feathers are fluffy and not hooked together, it makes this kind of feather sexing especially difficult.

Luckily, determining the sex of your chick through DNA sexing is highly accurate. They claim that the reliability of the laboratory protocol is 99.9%. Many companies offer this type of DNA test and a quick online search can provide you with some reputable companies.

The first company I looked at was PollyGene through Amazon. They specialize in parrots and other home birds that can be very difficult to sex. Many of these birds are very expensive so it makes sense to spend the money in order to find out the gender. I did not see chickens listed so I wrote a question to them about whether or not they could sex baby chicks. The answer that came back was no, which kind of surprised me. I went on to look at some other companies. IQ Bird Testing specifically states that they do silkie chick sexing. They charge $11.99 per bird and you get the results back in about a week and a half. I also had a customer who tested five newborn silkie chicks that she had purchased from us and had very good things to say about the IQ Bird Testing company.

DNA bird gender determination can be performed with blood samples, feather samples and eggshell samples. Laboratory analysis will test for the Z chromosome or W chromosome in birds to determine their sex. Males will have only Z chromosomes and females will have ZW chromosome pairs. It is the females, not the males who determine the sex of the embryo.

The collection of samples is very easy to do. After placing an order with a company online, they will send you a downloadable and printable Sample Form. Print out the form as you will need it when you are collecting samples. An incorrect collection of samples may cause delay in your bird’s results or even affect the outcome due to sample DNA cross- contamination. Always be very careful in following directions exactly.

Before beginning blood collection, wash your hands thoroughly. Use a pair of clean nail clippers sanitized with alcohol. Clip the tip of any toe nail approximately 2/3 of the distance from the root of the nail. Blood will flow from the nail. Place the circle of the submission form underneath it until it absorbs a few drops. Do not touch the blood at any time as this can contaminate your sample. Allow the blood to dry completely before folding the submission form. Check that your bird is not bleeding anymore and apply an anticoagulant onto the area. The blood sample has a higher chance of finding good quality DNA than feathers or eggshell.

For feather collecting, you want to move aside the surface feathers from the lower chest area and find the smaller ones that are underneath. Pluck at least five of these smaller feathers making sure that they come with a visible quill. You could use tweezers to do the plucking. If the quill comes with some blood, allow the feathers to air dry for one hour. Never touch the quills of the feathers with your hands. Never pluck the wings. Any feathers that are molted or shed naturally can not be used for DNA testing. Tape the feathers onto the submission form and make sure the tape does not reach the quills.

The last way is to use eggshells. After the chick has hatched from the egg, place the shell sideways and allow the inner membrane to dry a minimum of 24 hours. Do not touch the inside of the eggshell. Make sure that you have the right eggshell. Use the one the chick actually hatched from. Once it dries, place the entire eggshell into a plastic bag. Pierce the bag with a needle several times to allow air flow through the bag.

Lastly, mail your form with the sample collections to the company. They will ask you the species name which in the case of chickens would be Gallus Gallus. If you are doing several different birds you will need a way to identify each bird. Colored rubber bands that are quite small work well with tiny chicks. Place a different color on the leg of each chick and then use that color for identification on your form.

In a week or so the company will send its results back to you. There will be a separate certificate for each bird tested. They will let you know if it is male or female. Of the five birds that my customer tested, three came back male and two came back female. Since the male/female ratio for chickens is 50/50 this is pretty typical. The picture at the top shows the three chicks that came back as male. Would you be able to tell that just by looking at them? I recommend DNA testing for people that can’t stand the heart break of parting with one of their pets. If you do the testing early, it is worth the cost in the long run.

Victoria J. Peterson

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Why it is so Difficult to Sex Silkie Juvenile Chicks?

April 18, 2018December 1, 2018 by vjppoultry, posted in New Silkies

20180409_083330-1 Silkies are among the hardest breed of chickens to sex at a young age. The old adage that you can’t tell them apart until they crow or lay an egg has a lot of truth in it. I have found that certain weeks of age are easier than others for telling which are boys and which are girls.

Newborns that are hatched together out of the same color pen can be judged on size. Males tend to be larger and more curious than the females. This only works with same color chicks. If you want more information about sexing younger silkies, check out “sexing young silkie chicks.

At around three weeks, males will begin to be more aggressive and will play fight with other males in the same pen. Beware – females can do this also. The silkie comb on males may begin to show some signs of development from three weeks onward. A upside down “U” at the top part of the comb may be the beginning of a wider developing comb and signal a male. Females tend to have a more narrow upside down “V” at the top of their combs.

Males will continue to develop their combs which will become wider and may get bumpy. After twelve weeks the female comb begins to get wider as well and males and females will begin to look similar again.

AT VJP Poultry we have a rooster return policy. I had a customer return a rooster for rehoming last week that was around four months old. I asked him why he thought it was a rooster at that young age and he said that it was because it had a mean disposition. I put my hand down next to it and it immediately pecked it – hard!

After the customer left, I began looking more closely at the bird. It was a pet quality partridge or buff silkie. The color was wrong for the show ring. The more I looked at it, the more I just couldn’t get a handle on whether I thought it was a boy or a girl.

The first thing I did was to trim around the eyes. It was unable to see and this could have been part of the reason that it pecked so hard at my hand. I took a look at the comb and wattles. The comb was wider than younger females but at four months female silkie’s combs begin to grow. I looked for wattles. At four months they should be showing on a male. I begin to see them as young as two months old as small red dots. This bird had just the slightest suggestion of the outline of a wattle. Again, females will develop very small wattles as they grow towards maturity.

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The crest of this bird had a definite pom pom shape. Because I didn’t see this bird when it was younger, I don’t know if it went through any Elvis type crest that some males have beginning at two months. I looked at the back of the head to check for “streamer” development. Nothing so far, but there are new feathers coming in right at the spot that could later develop into streamers.

Next I looked at the hackle feathers on the neck. Males should have longer hackle feathers than the females at this point. I did not have another to compare it with but they looked shorter and more female to me.

The wings on the bird looked long, especially the primaries. They also seem to be hard or stiff – not shreddy. Just because they seem large, it makes me think male. Females have shorter primary feathers.

The tail is wide and stands up straight. I also think that this is a male characteristic. Females often have their tail down in a more submissive position.

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This silkie has large feet and massive foot feathering. This is another sign of a male. Females foot feathering are more in proportion to the rest of its body. Foot feathering depends on breeding but males will have larger feet.

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The stance of this bird is very upright. Boys stand up taller than girls as a rule and there is more room between the tail and the bottom of the feet.

Behavior is hard to tell since I didn’t see how it developed. It seems very docile once its eye feathers were trimmed. It is currently alone so I can’t see how it interacts with others. Males would be more assertive. If you placed it with another male, they may begin to fight even at this young age.

Males at four months are often crowing especially first thing in the morning. This bird only made soft clucking sounds like a hen would make. It did not struggle when you picked it up and did not make grunting sounds like a male may make.

So let’s look at the score card:

Comb- Female Wattles- female

crest – female hackle feathers – female

wings – male tail – male

feet – male stance – male

behavior- either noises – female

If I was pressed I would have to go with male, but it certainly could go the other direction.

This article is to show how hard it is to determine the sex of a young silkie. Mistakes can be made. Breeders and judges alike are not always certain when sexing silkies. I do think that it is much easier to sex them if you watch how they grow and develop. Taking a four month old juvenile silkie and trying to sex it in isolation is much more difficult. Hopefully, a crow will come sooner or later – or maybe an egg.

Victoria J. Peterson

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How To Sex Young Silkie Chickens at VJP Poultry – 3/7/17

March 7, 2017December 1, 2018 by vjppoultry, posted in New Silkies

20170220_143206 Silkies have always been known as a breed of chicken that is extremely difficult to sex. Most people will tell you that you won’t know the sex of your silkie until it either crows or lays an egg. I am going to give you some helpful hints and tricks to improve your chances of getting the sex of silkie chick that you desire.

Lets start with looking at physical appearance in newborn chicks. A boy may be slightly bigger than a girl chick. It will have thicker, more sturdy legs than a female. Remember that you need to judge each by its own color. My buffs are always bigger than my other colors. You can’t judge a buff against a white for size for example. You need to judge them within their own color group and within their own hatch mates.

A male chick will be more curious and outgoing than a female. If you put your finger into the brooder, the males will tend to peck at it more than the females will. A males will just have a more tough guy look to it and will be more likely to look you in the eye.

At ages two to four weeks, behavior will still be a good indicator. I notice that when taking pictures the boys tend to stand in the front, between the the unfamiliar camera and the girls in the back of the group. The boys will lift their heads up high and stand up straighter. The females will hunch down lower to the ground. If you make a noise or move your fingers, the boys will be more curious and come closer to you.

At around five weeks, I begin looking at their combs. I notice that the comb tends to be wider on the males and more narrow on the females. The boys will also begin to develop a bump that is circular in the middle of the comb. This bump will become larger as the chick grows. The female’s will stay flat for awhile..

Behavior is still important. Boys will need more room as they start to chest bump the others and hopping around the brooder. Females will chest bump too but it is really more of a boy thing. Males will continue to be more outgoing and curious.

At around twelve weeks the girls will begin to have a slight bump in their comb making it more difficult to tell them apart. Males will begin to develop small red wattles under and on either side of their beaks. The comb begins to look redder in the males.

Obvious boys are easy to tell. It is very apparent that they are males in looks and behavior. Late blooming boys are much harder. They can look like females for a long time and then suddenly develop a male boy type.

Boys will also sound different from girls when you pick them up. Boys will make more of a honking sound which will gradually develop into a crow.

As boys grow and develop their body shape will change and they will begin to grow streamer feathers from the back of their heads. Their combs will become prominent and red wattles will appear. Girls will have a pom pom shape to their crest . They will also sit lower to the ground with boys standing up straighter.

Remember – until an egg is laid, we are guessing as to gender. These guesses are based on observation but nothing is 100% accurate unless you have a DNA test done. These hints should help you make a guess as to what sex your silkie chicks is, but do not be surprised if your little pullet suddenly begins to crow!

Victoria J. Peterson

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