It is this unknown quantity which makes life harder. On top of this the quality of the crest is also important, but I feel we as the breeders can do little to control its visual appearance. There are three types of crest recognised but this is far too simplified. The general rule is the more distorted feathers the bird has the greater percentage of crested birds it is likely to produce. The aim with our crests is to generate sufficient numbers for selection each year.
Many breeders go for the improvement in the variety far to quickly.
A number of excellent birds can be produced in this way, but it is noticeable how a number of prominent fanciers no longer have birds related to the original stock. I presume this is due to poor fertility and lack of visual crests produced. Producing large numbers of crests ensures enough to select for the next season but will not increase the exhibition quality that fast and will lead to inbreeding to a higher degree than liked. When breeding a crested stud the aim is to hit the happy medium between these two. In order to achieve this ratio the number of outcrosses used are fewer than I would like and so any crestbred generated from a crest to a crestbred are sold unless of good quality.