he is bad quality

[NYREDS]

Quote:
While I hate to disagree

I have to say advice of this sort always puzzles me. I have seen it suggested many times on this board that one might breed 2 substandard birds together & come up with quality offspring. Whenever I see that I can't help but remember the old saying "you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
The hen is better than the male but she's far from very good. She's lacking in type eg she lacks the "roundness" of a good wyandotte. She's particularly weak in the tail.
If you are seriously interested in Silver Laced Wyandottes you'd be much better off starting elsewhere.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Quote:
While I hate to disagree

I have to say advice of this sort always puzzles me. I have seen it suggested many times on this board that one might breed 2 substandard birds together & come up with quality offspring. Whenever I see that I can't help but remember the old saying "you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
The hen is better than the male but she's far from very good. She's lacking in type eg she lacks the "roundness" of a good wyandotte. She's particularly weak in the tail.
If you are seriously interested in Silver Laced Wyandottes you'd be much better off starting elsewhere.

Great points. I was just saying if he didnt have any others to work from then he could do it that way. I was lucky enough when I got my first pair of SLW bantams to have a decent male. The female was too cochiny and threw all white earlobed offspring so I culled her and all offspring from her. If you really want to work on them try to find better stock of SLW's. If not you could work for a long time of outcrossing to a different color with better type and just breed like crazy. I do know there are some good wyandotte bantams there, I went to the AUS wyandotte site and saw some good birds.

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
While I hate to disagree

I have to say advice of this sort always puzzles me. I have seen it suggested many times on this board that one might breed 2 substandard birds together & come up with quality offspring. Whenever I see that I can't help but remember the old saying "you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
The hen is better than the male but she's far from very good. She's lacking in type eg she lacks the "roundness" of a good wyandotte. She's particularly weak in the tail.
If you are seriously interested in Silver Laced Wyandottes you'd be much better off starting elsewhere.

Great points. I was just saying if he didnt have any others to work from then he could do it that way. I was lucky enough when I got my first pair of SLW bantams to have a decent male. The female was too cochiny and threw all white earlobed offspring so I culled her and all offspring from her. If you really want to work on them try to find better stock of SLW's. If not you could work for a long time of outcrossing to a different color with better type and just breed like crazy. I do know there are some good wyandotte bantams there, I went to the AUS wyandotte site and saw some good birds.

I agree with all but the first point, sorry Michael I can't see breeding these two birds and culling as heavily as that would require. This is a 15 yr old and I'd hate to think that his introduction to breeding birds would require killing all but one or two birds out of his first season and then doing the same thing year after year for ???? who knows how long just to get something reasonably presentable. I don't take culling lightly and there are enough birds that are bred to eat, plus the culls from serious breeders that I don't think this situation calls for breeding/culling. I realize this is spoken like a true bleeding heart, but I believe strongly that breeding should be thoughtful and with the intention of improving the breed (unless you just want to fill your freezer).

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Great points. I was just saying if he didnt have any others to work from then he could do it that way. I was lucky enough when I got my first pair of SLW bantams to have a decent male. The female was too cochiny and threw all white earlobed offspring so I culled her and all offspring from her. If you really want to work on them try to find better stock of SLW's. If not you could work for a long time of outcrossing to a different color with better type and just breed like crazy. I do know there are some good wyandotte bantams there, I went to the AUS wyandotte site and saw some good birds.

I agree with all but the first point, sorry Michael I can't see breeding these two birds and culling as heavily as that would require. This is a 15 yr old and I'd hate to think that his introduction to breeding birds would require killing all but one or two birds out of his first season and then doing the same thing year after year for ???? who knows how long just to get something reasonably presentable. I don't take culling lightly and there are enough birds that are bred to eat, plus the culls from serious breeders that I don't think this situation calls for breeding/culling. I realize this is spoken like a true bleeding heart, but I believe strongly that breeding should be thoughtful and with the intention of improving the breed (unless you just want to fill your freezer).

Culling doesn't always mean killing. Selling them as pet quality birds to people who aren't going to breed them is one option.

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
Katy, you're correct that selling them as pet quality birds is one option, but in fact the term "culling" actually means to kill. Maybe I'm wrong about what Michael "flyingmonkeypoop" was talking about. He can correct me if I misunderstood him, but I'm thinking that an LF bird, bred on the scale that he was alluding to, we would be talking about killing one way or another. They could end up in someones freezer, and that's not all bad. Did I understand you correctly Michael?
Also, that thing about "not going to breed them." Once they've left your hands, you have no control over that. Lots of people start out thinking they just want a couple of chickens - - We ALL know where that goes.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Culling:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culling

Nothing about killing is found.

 

[domino7]

This has been mentioned many times on here, but culling does NOT mean to kill, although it can.

 

[lilcrow]

OK, we'll split this hair, whichever cull he meant. I'll let Michael take it from here since he's the one who decided to use the term. Which cull did you mean Michael?

 

[Msbear]

 

[NYREDS]

Ok so I've only been breeding poultry for 49 years but I have always understood "culling" to mean the process of selecting what to keep & what not to. One way to dispose of those not kept is to slaughter them, another is to send them to live elsewhere.