After doing this for 10 years I am totally different in how I do things from when I first got into them, lots of bad advice in the beginning years. My fault for listening and following.
Main person who changed that would be George, going through his pens with him a good 5 times in 2 years along with doing the Indy show together was a world class education in Silkies, not only that making friends with Eric Kutch at various shows an over the phone, and of course Don Jones at Indy. Don let George and me go over every bird he had at the show as I was higher on the list as a buyer for birds from Don, George & me made a deal on what birds we would buy and share in our pens. Shorty P. is a very good friend with Don and was also at Indy, so some of Dons birds were his line. George also went over all the KD birds at Indy with their ok, and that was a education on various aspects of that stock as well.
Attend some shows with people who can show you hands on what to look for and what you are looking at. One of the hardest things to do is let the birds finish out before you make cuts, what does not bug you can drive another person nuts, lol Learn the standard, talk to the judges about it, bring your birds to a show and ask lots of questions. It is hard to say anything via the net without seeing the bird(s). You will not agree with everyone, even judges or top breeders, follow your gut after all you are paying your feed bill.
In the beginning I culled chicks of all things for toes, UGH Gosh only knows how many good birds went down the road that could have been a good breeder bird.
In the middle years I was not bothered by 4 or 6 toes.
In the last 4 years I have culled any 4 toe that was produced, which is few and far between, now I weed out the 6 toes after they finish out an I figure out where I am at in numbers of each sex & quality overall of each bird.
Duck foot is a big no no in my pens, and yes I know they go to champion row, but I just will not have it on my breeder or show stock.
Eyes; I like dark eyes on my silkies, there are certain lines that have lighter eye color that I have seen in the whites and buffs. Personally no experience in breeding with that issue.
Yes, you can get good birds from 4 toes, light eyes, etc. It is all on what you can afford, what makes YOU happy, and if you willing to put in some hard work to get there.
Just a note, you cannot breed in good fluff, you need to buy it and keep the gene alive in your pen. Which means do not sell the best fluff in your pen because of a flaw if the bird overall has a super house. Just be careful how you breed that flaw and in future keep in mind the youngstock out of that bird & how you breed it. And if you sold that bird as a egg or chick, than shame on you, lol And good for the person who bought it pretty cheap, ROFL
I am not a big gene nut (Suze speaks a foreign language to me,
but I do listen to her and TRY to understand what she is saying), just have a good eye now that it has been trained. If you did any showing with animals you should pick it up fairly quick, our family was into quarter horses for years so it came easy to me after George showed me over and over.
Connie
