I cull roosters pretty hard - and in my case, cull doesn't mean kill, there's a good market here for handsome roos. I put them in a nice crate with some straw and folks at the local sale barn snap them up. It's a way better cost/benefit than the crock-pot. I mention it because a lot of people forget that cull means "remove from this breeding program" and there are a lot of ways to do that.
Nature culls most of my hens. I keep them when they molt, because longevity and predator savvy is important to me - everyone's situation is unique. However, I do take nature's hints. When a hen's molt lasts 2 months or more, when her laying slows or stops, these are usually signs that she's having a health issue and I hurry nature along, which I feel is a kindness. They are not generally long-lived critters, so some hens, this happens at a year, but I had one old girl still laying 5 eggs a week at the incredible age of 7 before she was nabbed by a fisher cat.
The plus to this for me is that when I hatch out eggs, it is from proven hens. Regardless of breed, these are hens that forage well, are wary of predators, molt in 6 weeks or less and lay well year round.
Is it all new genetics? No, but if certain traits are important to me, I can separate out a few hens that meet those specific criteria and have passed all the other tests, pen them for a few weeks with the rooster of my choice and hatch out my batch or two of eggs.
Because honestly I don't hatch out enough eggs to run my flock ENTIRELY around that. Breeding is a great goal, but for the number of chicks I raise (like, 10 at a time), I don't need my EVERY chicken to be a breeder. But I eat eggs almost every day, and I certainly feed my birds every day, I look at them all the time, so good layers that are easy on my feedbill, no freeloaders and a bird I find attractive will stay in my coop, if not in my breeding project.
Nature culls most of my hens. I keep them when they molt, because longevity and predator savvy is important to me - everyone's situation is unique. However, I do take nature's hints. When a hen's molt lasts 2 months or more, when her laying slows or stops, these are usually signs that she's having a health issue and I hurry nature along, which I feel is a kindness. They are not generally long-lived critters, so some hens, this happens at a year, but I had one old girl still laying 5 eggs a week at the incredible age of 7 before she was nabbed by a fisher cat.
The plus to this for me is that when I hatch out eggs, it is from proven hens. Regardless of breed, these are hens that forage well, are wary of predators, molt in 6 weeks or less and lay well year round.
Is it all new genetics? No, but if certain traits are important to me, I can separate out a few hens that meet those specific criteria and have passed all the other tests, pen them for a few weeks with the rooster of my choice and hatch out my batch or two of eggs.
Because honestly I don't hatch out enough eggs to run my flock ENTIRELY around that. Breeding is a great goal, but for the number of chicks I raise (like, 10 at a time), I don't need my EVERY chicken to be a breeder. But I eat eggs almost every day, and I certainly feed my birds every day, I look at them all the time, so good layers that are easy on my feedbill, no freeloaders and a bird I find attractive will stay in my coop, if not in my breeding project.
I love the blue girl in the first photo! I will admit that I have no personal experience with blues, but in the picture, the girl in the third photo looks blue to me. She doesn't have much contrast in her feathers, but the camera does pick some up.
