Well I am Cara, of Silver Pullet Poultry aka Smoky73.
You can certainly improve a line of birds by keeping the best of the hens you have and breeding to a bird that has all theother traits your hens are lacking. Or vice versa. Male silkies are so easy to find and cheaper than trying to find a SQ hen, I personally am up to my eyeballs in roos right now, I am sure others would also agree.
If all I had to work with was some cruddy hatchery silkies, I would certianly look to buying a roo from a reputable breeder, that has the qualities that the hens are lacking. Such as if the hens are lacking a large crest or bearding, I would get a roo that has a really large crest and nice beard to compensate. You can not work on evreyhting at once, but always breed your birds to another bird that has the qualities you want to improve on. Inbreeding is Brother to Sister, sometimes is OK IF you want to set a trait. I breed father to daughter or mother to son, which is considered LINE breeding.
That being said, sometimes you just truly have no idea what kind of genetics is in the birds WAYYY back. Example, I breed black to black. But yet, I know they were crossed way back to white, and this year, I had a surprise Wheaten and Silver Wheaten chicks.
You can certainly improve a line of birds by keeping the best of the hens you have and breeding to a bird that has all theother traits your hens are lacking. Or vice versa. Male silkies are so easy to find and cheaper than trying to find a SQ hen, I personally am up to my eyeballs in roos right now, I am sure others would also agree.
If all I had to work with was some cruddy hatchery silkies, I would certianly look to buying a roo from a reputable breeder, that has the qualities that the hens are lacking. Such as if the hens are lacking a large crest or bearding, I would get a roo that has a really large crest and nice beard to compensate. You can not work on evreyhting at once, but always breed your birds to another bird that has the qualities you want to improve on. Inbreeding is Brother to Sister, sometimes is OK IF you want to set a trait. I breed father to daughter or mother to son, which is considered LINE breeding.
That being said, sometimes you just truly have no idea what kind of genetics is in the birds WAYYY back. Example, I breed black to black. But yet, I know they were crossed way back to white, and this year, I had a surprise Wheaten and Silver Wheaten chicks.