At what age do you know you need to cull silkies??

[erin0415]

How old are your birds when you decide they are not right for your breeding program? My silkies are 6 weeks and there are a few that I know are not good for breeding (single comb, 4 toed, crooked beak), but as for the rest, at what point do you decide they aren't right??

 

[onthespot]

just depends what you are breeding for. I have a single comb, utility grade silky hen. She also has an unpleasant personality, but she is an EGG LAYING MACHINE, just about like a leghorn. I am raising a batch of her babies right now, and I am not getting rid of anything until it crows, because in this case I don't care if the comb is reddish, or single, or it is missing a toe. The father is much more typey, bearded and docile than the hen, and some of the babies are surprisingly typey, but I am not culling out the ones that are less typey, because my primary criteria for this cross is better looking, great laying, occasionally broody, good mothering silkies, preferably without profuse feathering, huge topknots, super docile dispositions... On the other hand, if i was shooting for exhibition birds, there are only two in the bunch with "promise" at this stage, three weeks. The rest would have been gone two weeks ago.

 

[TB1]

crossed beak would fo been out after 24 hrs, the rest about 2 weeks ago from your post.
TB

 

[LilPeeps]

Missing toes, single combs, and often crooked beaks are visable from hatch and can be culled anytime from that point forward. Also, you'll want to cull for foot feathering, feather, skin, and eye color, toe spacing, type, crest, comb shape and color, gender, etc.

 

[dancingbear]

Of course, with the growing market for silkie meat, if you'll be culling anyway, you could grow them out to about 12 weeks or so and use them for meat. (even though they aren't very big) If you wanted to sell them for meat, in most places, you'd either have to sell them live, or pay a processor.

 

[sweetcorn]

Or you could give them away or sell them as pet quality to somebody who wouldn't mind imperfect fuzzy butts .

 

[Kanchii]

I'd go ahead and cull the ones yo ucan see problems with that you mentioned, save you space and food. Then I usually wait till the birds are at least 3 months old, and from there I can tell how nice their crest is going to be, ect.