That makes sense. I guess I'm also trying to get more "realistic" about things too. Old hens can have a lot of issues. I'm not sure I believe in trying to keep something alive that's clearly heading toward death. I grew up kind of the opposite. In my family we'd try to "save" any animal we had...
Thanks for this!
Honestly that's kind of how I would like to eventually be. It seems really practical. It seems like you love your chickens, but you're also able to separate the emotions and be practical about the meat you want to eat. We have raised CX for meat so I was able to distinguish...
Thanks for the detailed response! This makes a lot of sense. Those are some situations I didn't really think of.
I also just remembered that we did have to cull a young chick. My fiance did it. It was a CX, maybe 2 weeks old and we wouldn't stop regurgitating and stopped eating and drinking. We...
I guess I double-posted this thread somehow. Not sure how it happened but I can't figure out how to delete the other one. If a moderator is able to, it would be appreciated.
I don't want this thread to be about this particular chicken. It's more about the general question so I and others can learn when when culling is appropriate (in general).
But I will answer the questions because maybe this could serve as an example of knowing when to cull or not. She is an...
Yeah that's why I was wondering. To people who grew up with farm animals, it seems that they knew exactly what good husbandry means. To someone like me who did not, I'm never sure when the time is right to cull. That's why I wanted to get others' take on when that time is.
I have only been keeping chickens for a year (started my flock with older birds) and have had to cull two Golden Comets who developed what I believe was salpingitis. It got so bad and I wanted to put them out of their misery. Right now I have another hen who is having trouble with egg-laying but...