Advice on culling to creating good, strong breeding stock. Am I a monster?

[Hannahnic14]

I suspect that there are people here raising feathered livestock and others raising pets.
We just have to recognize that there are going to be more than one point of view.

Yes this is true. Not everyone is raising livestock, some are treasured pets and I respect that.

 

[Silexian]

That is how you keep and improve good stock. You only allow the best, well producing stock you have to reproduce. You process or sell the mediocre and weak for food. Around here everyone and everything has a job. If they don’t produce. They are gone.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you so so much for your kind words. My plan at the moment is to cull the sick birds, I'll try to send one to my state lab but I'm finding that they required a vet reference, (I'll research that more), breed the strongest birds for immunity, if worst comes to worst I'll just start fresh. But that will be a last resort.

Call your state lab and ASK them questions BEFORE you cull. Find out if they want you to ship live birds or not. Some prefer to euthanize themselves. It's worth the phone call just to ask questions. A quick read "looks like" you can submit birds yourself instead of going through a vet. Ask about fees, some states have testing free to $$$ it depends. ASK.

Contact the Animal Health reception desk at 615-837-5125.
C.E. Kord Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory
P.O. Box 40627
Nashville, TN 37204-0627
https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/consumers/pets/animal-health-diagnostic-lab0.html

 

[Hannahnic14]

Call your state lab and ASK them questions BEFORE you cull. Find out if they want you to ship live birds or not. Some prefer to euthanize themselves. It's worth the phone call just to ask questions. A quick read "looks like" you can submit birds yourself instead of going through a vet. Ask about fees, some states have testing free to $$$ it depends. ASK.

Contact the Animal Health reception desk at 615-837-5125.
C.E. Kord Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory
P.O. Box 40627
Nashville, TN 37204-0627
https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/consumers/pets/animal-health-diagnostic-lab0.html

will do! I just glanced over it earlier. I haven't read in depth or called yet.

 

[tigger19687]

Curious if they are in a confined place... do they free range ?

I only ask because obviously it is contagious and therefore can stay on the ground to contaminate other birds or re-contaminate others. I wouldn't freerange till you know what the Roos had.
Personally, depending on the disease, I might just cull the whole flock if they were in a confined area... make a NEW coop/run area FAR away from the other one (up hill and upwind) and start again with clean chicks. yes it is a long process but to be Self Sufficient you want the BEST for you and the Family

Culling is not a bad thing--- keeping a sick or injured bird alive is, in my book.

 

[Hannahnic14]

Curious if they are in a confined place... do they free range ?

I only ask because obviously it is contagious and therefore can stay on the ground to contaminate other birds or re-contaminate others. I wouldn't freerange till you know what the Roos had.
Personally, depending on the disease, I might just cull the whole flock if they were in a confined area... make a NEW coop/run area FAR away from the other one (up hill and upwind) and start again with clean chicks. yes it is a long process but to be Self Sufficient you want the BEST for you and the Family

Culling is not a bad thing--- keeping a sick or injured bird alive is, in my book.

My main flock free range on about an acre. The roosters have been isolated for about 3 weeks now in their own enclosure. We have decided to cull the roosters that are currently sick and just watch everyone else.

If we end up having to cull everyone one at a time as they get sick, then so be it I have new chicks coming next week. They will be separated for a very long time, (possibly indefinitely) so I have the option of having a new, disease free flock.

 

[tigger19687]

My main flock free range on about an acre. The roosters have been isolated for about 3 weeks now in their own enclosure. We have decided to cull the roosters that are currently sick and just watch everyone else.

If we end up having to cull everyone one at a time as they get sick, then so be it I have new chicks coming next week. They will be separated for a very long time, (possibly indefinitely) so I have the option of having a new, disease free flock.

Are you testing the Roos ?
I would, and I wouldn't cull the hens one at a time, if you cull do them all and then let that area be empty for a year. keep both flocks totally separate as I'm going to guess the future and you'll end up culling the old flock. You have to thiink smart. Don't waste feed on a flock that you will cull later.
Work Smarter, not harder. Save money where you can so long as you do it smartly

 

[Hannahnic14]

Are you testing the Roos ?
I would, and I wouldn't cull the hens one at a time, if you cull do them all and then let that area be empty for a year. keep both flocks totally separate as I'm going to guess the future and you'll end up culling the old flock. You have to thiink smart. Don't waste feed on a flock that you will cull later.
Work Smarter, not harder. Save money where you can so long as you do it smartly

I am going to try to get the roos tested.

That makes sense, we'll probably watch them through the summer and if we feel we need to cull, we will do so in the fall or when we do our meat birds around late spring.

They are my only current egg layers and I have a line of people wanting free range eggs. So they will be able to pull their weight for the time being.

 

[Folly's place]

If your birds have Mycoplasma, either gallisepticum or synoviae, removing all the birds is necessary, cleaning, and starting with new clean birds after three weeks is necessary. New birds are about impossible to isolate at a home or small farm setting, it's just too difficult.
Better to get these roosters tested for everything, and then you can make decisions based on good information, not guesses.
And the longer you have free ranging infected chickens, the more your local wild birds will be infected, at least.
Mary

 

[Hannahnic14]

So upon further research with tn state agriculture, they only accept livestock with a vet referral. I don't have a vet for my birds so this is the plan:

This weekend: Cull any noticeably sick birds. Attempt home necropsy to just see if we can identify anything off.

This spring/summer: Keep new chicks on the front of our 7 acre property. (current flock is on the back of the 7 acres) Watch current flock for any issues, if they continue to have any respitory issues we will cull the sick birds, possibly the whole flock if need be. If all birds need to be culled, leave the area vacant for as long as possible (several months at least, research says several weeks is good) before introducing new chicks to the area.

In the mean time no birds are to leave my property just in case. This is my plan if it's not good enough for some of you, I'm sorry. These birds are essential to our homestead and will not be culled immediately.

That's the plan I have to keep my sanity.