Whereas hens have nice, short, rounded feathers, you'll find that young males have a messy looking crown a top their head with the so called 'streamers' sticking out the back. ☕ Enjoyed and found this article useful? Please consider buying me a virtual Coffee. Streamers - silkie cockerels tend to get thin, long feathers coming from their crown. And if you’ve any questions, please just comment below and I’ll do my best to respond. I have a YouTube outlining some of these IDs - please see below. However, once again, combined with other characteristics, it will help ID your hens and silkie cockerels. These are often males, though hens will also bicker to establish pecking order.
They’ll stand face to face, pushing their neck out and often splaying their neck feathers. However, you may see two birds standing off against each other. This isn’t necessarily treading, as cockerels often will not attempt this until they’re a lot older. Combine such characteristics with some of the ID tips above, particularly the feathers, and you’ll soon have your answer.įinally, like all chickens, young silkies will begin to establish gender related behaviour fairly early on. Meanwhile, young cockerels wattles will start to grow into pale blue or red lobes that hang down a little. Hen wattles will often remain just small patches of blue on the side of the face until they reach maturity. Though both silkie hens and cockerels both have wattles and combs, boys tend to start growing them earlier. Below, a young hen with a neat, rounded crown. A wet crown is almost impossible to correctly identify as it can be a right mess.ĪBOVE: A young cockerel with an oval crown and streamers. When you’re looking at the crown, I advise making sure your silkies are dry. It’s often quite messy, with multiple streamers sticking out in all places.
Meanwhile, for males, the crown is often more oblong or egg-shaped. There should be no ‘streamers’ sticking out as mentioned above. In hens, when you look down from a birds-eye view, it should be neat and fairly rounded. The crown on a silkie, is the group of feathers on top of the head. Saddle feathers are long and thin, grow from the centre of the back and hand down, often curling around the tail and rump. Saddle feathers - as their name suggests, saddle feathers appear on the back and tail end of poultry think of the placement of a horse saddle. Whereas hens have nice, short, rounded feathers, you’ll find that young males have a messy looking crown a top their head with the so called ‘streamers’ sticking out the back. Streamers - silkie cockerels tend to get thin, long feathers coming from their crown. At nine weeks (3 months old), some of the gender specific feathers will begin to appear. One of the best ways to work out the gender of your silkie is by the feathers.
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