selection shedule for show silkies

[minister man]

In one of the other discussions that I have been involved in on here, the idea of selection and a culling schedule was presented and I have never thought about that before. I am wondering what everyone else uses? It would be good to be able to identify cull birds early so they could be sold as pets or ......... the other way to cull birds, before they have eaten for months.

So what type of elimination process do you use and at what age ?

Are thier birds you eliminate at hatching? what are they?

When do you assess the situation next? what do you eliminate at that time?

What is your routine after that???

I am just wondering what works for you and what doesn't?

 

[ultasol]

I only cull at hatch birds with toe issues (too many, too few, poor spacing) which doesn't eliminate all that many.

 

[Smoky73]

Quote:
Everyones agenda will be different as we all have different areas of the silkies that we feel desevers more attention in our breeding program.
First off, early on, culling for 4 toes, or 6 toes, single combs and non-bearded ness if you are raising the bearded variety only. Croked beaks or crooked toes would be obvious, and all this can be done at day old and up. The sooner the better but I prefer to wait till they are at least 2 months old, I do not cull chicks ever unless there is obvious defects, crooked neck or leg tendon problems to where the bird cannot walk. Anything that is a physical issue in the chick making its quality of life poor.

Then I move on to middle toe feathering and toe spacing, though a bad spaced 4-5th toe mated to a good one can get you good birds too so I have kept these as breeder and have even shown some and won with. Eye color gets little attention from me, crest size is crucial to me, a small combed bird does not stay here. Now I am working on better wings. I rarely have color issues, but anything that normally is not recognized I do not keep, I say normally as I have the wheaten and silver wheaten birds I think I will be testing on the black dad and then on the buff roosters.

 

[minister man]

Thank-you for the detailed explaination. I appreciate your help. We are breeding whites, so I am not sure what color issues that brings on. The birds We bought, we bought from a poultry judge that said "there feet are excellent", So I must take a picture of their feet for my stud book, to compare the feet of thier offspring to. I have so much to lear about selection!

 

[minister man]

I was wondering if anyone happend to have any pictures of good show silkies that could help me learn about selection? I am specifically looking for pictures of "type" and pictures of thier feet, that shows me what the feathering and toe spacing should look like. maybe crest size?


I would like your permision to print the pictures for a selection guide that I am making for myself only. I want to make a poster to compare my future generations to, to know where My "family" is going. thanks