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

I have never taken a bird to the vet. Once years ago, a person posted on here, that she kept chicken very economically. She did not treat sick birds, she culled them at once. A sharp knife cures both behavior problems and illness.

I went with that philosophy, and have only had one sick bird ever. I have had predators. And it has taken me a while to get that truly fixed. But I have never had sick birds in the house (my dear hubby would hit the ceiling). I don't save weak chicks.

I do have a healthy and active flock. I don't keep birds I feel sorry for, it is called the coup de grace, and actually is considered a gift to help something cross over.

I have stopped reading the emergency page of this forum, sometimes I think some people only have birds so they can practice being a doctor to them.

Mrs K
 
I have never taken a bird to the vet. Once years ago, a person posted on here, that she kept chicken very economically. She did not treat sick birds, she culled them at once. A sharp knife cures both behavior problems and illness.

I went with that philosophy, and have only had one sick bird ever. I have had predators. And it has taken me a while to get that truly fixed. But I have never had sick birds in the house (my dear hubby would hit the ceiling). I don't save weak chicks.

I do have a healthy and active flock. I don't keep birds I feel sorry for, it is called the coup de grace, and actually is considered a gift to help something cross over.

I have stopped reading the emergency page of this forum, sometimes I think some people only have birds so they can practice being a doctor to them.

Mrs K
I appreciate your input! I think we have come to the same conclusion, we don't want sick weak birds and as harsh as that sounds its what fits our end goal with our birds.

Healthy, strong, happy birds make healthy strong eggs and that's our goal. To provide the best food possible for our family and a few friends.
 
In general I agree, except in this situation the OP might have a disease that needs more drastic action, if it's MG or one of those 'forever in the flock' diseases. A very good reason to avoid birds from other flocks.
And people with a few pets are often more than willing to manage illnesses in specific birds, including those vet visits.
I'm willing to treat injuries if a good outcome seems possible.
Mary
 
I agree Folly, each of us come to this hobby from a different viewpoint. The biggest being pets to livestock, a true back yard or a more farm like environment. Some people want to switch over to the more farm like, or homestead like, such as the original poster.

There does seem to be a lot of guilt for some people with basic husbandry. I do use the vet, we are a large animal operation, those animals are very valuable to us, and provide our income, we take very good care of them.

But a two dollar chick for eggs I can also buy in the store, is not economically viable for me to have a $100+ vet visit, and often times, the vet knows very little about poultry. I can easily replace a bird, and so for considerably less money.

So I do agree with you, there are many things that time will cure without a problem or minimal imput... but I would NOT treat a respiratory illness- that bird would be immediately pulled, and unless quickly better - culled.

Mrs K
 
Could you try to re-home them? Like there are chickens rescues some places. I have no clue if there is one by you or if its an option, its just an idea. On second thought, if they are suffering too badly, the right thing to do would be to cull them. I don't know a whole ton about this topic, and just spit out a random idea. Please do not take this as hurtful, I don't mean it in that way. I think its so amazing that you care and want to do the right thing! I've seen some bad situations people don't treat or care for, you are certainly doing the right thing. :hugs 😁
I have to disagree with you. Taking sick chickens to a rescue would be exposing the others to whatever is wrong, and is likely to result in more deaths and illness than culling the two ill ones. And a rescue might refuse to take sick ones.
 
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Most of us started with chickens and initially weren't as careful about biosecurity as we should have been. I got my first birds from a neighbor, and fortunately they were all healthy! The rooster was a total jerk, but that's another story...
We also bought chicks from a couple of private breeders, and again, got lucky. The one neurological chick that I had posted was a vitamin deficiency victim, not a Marek's carrier, information that was worth the $$ spent. And when I started paying attention to mill dates on feed bags too.
Since then, being paranoid about biosecurity has been a good thing here!
Mary
 
Most of us started with chickens and initially weren't as careful about biosecurity as we should have been. I got my first birds from a neighbor, and fortunately they were all healthy! The rooster was a total jerk, but that's another story...
We also bought chicks from a couple of private breeders, and again, got lucky. The one neurological chick that I had posted was a vitamin deficiency victim, not a Marek's carrier, information that was worth the $$ spent. And when I started paying attention to mill dates on feed bags too.
Since then, being paranoid about biosecurity has been a good thing here!
Mary
I will definitely be upping my biosecurity. No birds are coming into my flock for awhile. We are getting chicks from a reputable hatchery but that's it for now.
 
Any birds that sound sick gets culled here and only time i ever had that problem was buying other peoples sick birds now i will only buy from hatcheries and not grown birds. Since for me its not worth treating when stress bring it right back out again. So breeding for better immune is a waste of time.
 
Most of us started with chickens and initially weren't as careful about biosecurity as we should have been. I got my first birds from a neighbor, and fortunately they were all healthy! The rooster was a total jerk, but that's another story...
We also bought chicks from a couple of private breeders, and again, got lucky. The one neurological chick that I had posted was a vitamin deficiency victim, not a Marek's carrier, information that was worth the $$ spent. And when I started paying attention to mill dates on feed bags too.
Since then, being paranoid about biosecurity has been a good thing here!
Mary
Agreed. My worst newbie mistake was going to a new local startup hatchery to buy chicks. You just walked in the door, chose the chicks, paid for them, and left. Those chicks were sick. All but 2 died, and the singleton that I bought them to grow up with died, too. Young chicks from a hatchery may well be OK, (Please correct me if this is wrong, I need to learn too), but if I can just walk in, so can everybody else who may be spreading something on their shoes or clothes. They closed down right after I bought the sick chicks. A week later their web site was down and they have never reopened. Don't spread it to anybody else.
 

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