B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[capayvalleychick]

I'm not sure who is in charge of approving memberships. Joseph probably knows and he checks in almost daily. I know Jim Parker is extremely busy and the Nationals are starting this week, so many people are getting ready for that. The Club is run by just a few volunteers, so please be understanding.

Someone will approve you, but it may not be until next week.

Kim

Director of District 2

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
actually i'm hatching birds i don't have coops for yet... LOL but i work best under pressure, so once i get caught up on some bills (was out of work for a week for health issues) then the coop will go together quickly i think...

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Hello, all!

I am preparing for my first Dorking chicks, and want to be sure I understand how, when and why to cull. My current objective is to develop a hardy, vigorous farm flock; first as proper meat birds, then work on egg-laying, then correct feet, then pick a comb/color variety to work towards.

HOW: rapid decapitation with sharp scissors/hatchet as day-olds or on butchering day(s).

WHEN/WHY:1. coming out of the incubator/hatchery box/nest for any chick with a crossed beak or with ___ (please fill in the blank.)
2. At 12 weeks, for the smaller half of the hatch, any crooked keels/tails/_____. (and weigh the keepers to compare with future batches.)
3.At 20 weeks, cull to the keepers (top 10%).

I sincerely invite each of you to provide both negative and positive feedback on my plan, as I am certain you all have more experience breeding Dorkings than I have.

Thank you.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
ok well i can see culling, but if a cross beak chick is still capable of eating, i wouldn't cull until it's large enough to provide a useful meal personally. if it's not capable of eating, for day olds I put them in the freezer and they simply go to sleep. then dispose of in the compost.

larger birds, when i cull i just pop the head. i try not to get blood all over as that tends to draw predators. popping the head, hold the birds feet in one hand, head in the other, stretch apart until the bird can't stretch anymore, and 'pop' the head at an upward angle, and that should separate the head at the spine. they flap a teeny bit, but i just keep hold of the feet for a minute until the flap stops. so much less 'messy'. lol

i don't plan on culling ANYONE until they're of proper size, but along the way will continue to evaluate birds for the desirable characteristics (weight, carriage, form, etc) and those that don't meet my criteria will have their bands removed. only the ones that continue to show promise will keep their bands. (I'm planning on banding to keep track of lineages, so I don't mix up my lines for birds that are free ranging together.)

as for weighing, I'm weighing eggs as laid, chicks as hatched, and then i'll probably weigh once a month on and make my first cull about 20 weeks, keeping the 1st and 2nd choice birds to continue growing out. I'm also planning on trap nesting as well, so i can monitor egg laying and egg sizes too.

I'm more interested in overall size and egg production first, and conformation second. so all things being equal, i'll pick a larger bird with minor flaws over a much smaller bird but better conformation. serious conformation flaws would get culled automatically regardless of body size.

I'm planning on keeping them in trios or quads, 3 breeding pens per variety, with 1st choice birds. and 2nd choice kept in reserve in case something happens to one or more...

granted i only have the one trio right now so my options are limited, so things may change between now and then but that's my plan (for now).

 

[Mrs MIA]

Unless there's a very obvious defect at birth, I will not cull until their meal-size. (I don't cull many!

) They change SO much in the first 6 months of their lives.
I use a CO2 chamber for chicks, sometimes larger birds, or a killing cone for adults.

 

[rtroxel]

As to culling, raising, and breeding:

Mostly, This is my take home point from this year: Cull young, Cull heavy.

There is a great and noble principle in raising birds for meat, but in the end, you just fill up space and make more feed costs for yourself. This also causes the remainder of your birds to be stressed, feather-picked, and grow less efficiently. Then when butchering time comes, you have very little use for the 50-100 extra birds that you have running around and no one to buy them, at least for even break-even price. For me, I don't have time to butcher 3, 4, 5 times a year. Once is plenty and I don't need or want a freezer full of whole chickens. If I can have about 20 birds, that's plenty for me. Frankly, there is always a chicken running around that can't remember why I kept and will make a great Sunday meal. So here's my point. I would rather cull a bird that is less than 3 pounds and keep the best so that the best can be even better.

I had some pretty wild combs, slow growers, birds that were pretty obvious culls. Unless I can find someone that wants them little, next year, they are going to get the axe pretty quick. I want to hatch 200 chicks next year and raise 50. I figure I can make the same from 50 good birds as 150 junk ones.

One more point: All the weighing, egg checking, data collecting is wonderful. In fact it is essential to excellent breeding. But I would like to echo what Lou Horton said in the last Poultry Press: "One of the most common and largest mistakes on beginners (and, in my opinion, of even experienced breeders) is to buy birds, hatch birds, acquire birds that do not have very adequate and very secure (varmint-proof) housing." I think the bigger point is that we need to develop a decent system before we try to get excellent results. A good system in and of itself can produce some very good results, even for a rather inexperienced breeder.

My point is this, I thought I was in pretty good shape on housing this year. I have 5 pretty big run pens and right now they have about 30 in each pen. They shouldn't have more than 20 in any on them. 15 would be better and I'm going through a bag of feed a day mostly for birds I know I'm not going to keep. All that data we collect has to go toward making raising poultry more efficiently, effectively and profitably. We are better off with no data and a good system and a good eye than all the data in the world and a poor or mediocre system that makes it basically worthless. Good data produced in a bad system is actually bad data. I speak to myself first.

And another thing, I like collecting data, but I'm so busy, I don't have time to it as much as I want to. It ends up being just another stressor in my life. I'll be durned if my chickens are going to cause me to dislike my life. I'll do it when I can, compare it with my observations and let good thinking and a good system do the bulk of the grunt work. I won't be a slave to my hobby just because that is the best way to do it and I'm a perfectionist. It's still my hobby and it's supposed to make life less stressing, more enjoyable.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Rudy, I am so envious of you being able to hatch so many. I wanted to hatch a lot this year, and had to settle for 2, hatched in late August.

Neither one is a cull, so far, though. They look good.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
oh i plan on hatching a ton, and growing them out... my dogs eat raw and we go thru about 20 pounds of meat/bone a week. believe me, if i have 150 birds culled, they will not go unused.

i'm planning on hatching at LEAST 200 birds a year...

 

[flowerchild59]

Quote:
Very well said and lots of good info for beginners and more experienced poultry people alike.

 

[rtroxel]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Rudy, I am so envious of you being able to hatch so many. I wanted to hatch a lot this year, and had to settle for 2, hatched in late August.

Neither one is a cull, so far, though. They look good.

I have 7 LF Varieties right now and a couple more that are sub-varieties (as in, I don't spend as much time on them). If I don't hatch quite a few, I get nowhere. The key to hatching lots is hatching when the males are fertile or having an extra male at all times. It's chicken insurance for the price of feed. I can afford to feed a few extra males. I can't afford to lose a year of hatching.​