Culling Chicks Opinion Changed =/

[my sunwolf]

Clucky, I 100% agree with your new outlook on culling chicks. It seems right that the flock owner makes the decision whether or not to cull, especially with quality of life cases, but also for breed standards if that is your project (and it is nice to at least be able to eat those who don't conform). I've gotten a lot of negative feedback on these forums for killing chickens and it's starting to worry me!

So this is your positive feedback

Sounds like you're raising a fantastic flock.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Some will always hate. That being said I cull hard. Culled off 10 today simply bc they weren't growing as fast as the others. Do I care about the quality of my flock birds, yes yes I do. Do i care if someone thinks its cruel and mean? Nope, not a bit. I had to shoot a horse this morning. Didn't take pleasure in that but it was a very real danger and I took care of it. Family comes first but the quality and care of my animals is still important.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Clucky, did you see what I wrote?

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

"bad temper" doesn't even begin to describe this chick. He's only a week old (I lose track of time a lot, but I'm pretty sure he's a week). He bloodied up both his siblings beaks in less than an hour in the brooder and this was almost immediately after hatching so I let it be for a while, thinking he was figuring out how his beak worked or something. lol A couple days later he was even nastier so I placed him with the 4 week old big kids (Norwegian Jaerhons) and he literally attacked the ever loving heck out of my birds. They did nothing to him. He ripped out three tail feathers in one of them. With regard to his hatchmates, like I said, he bloodied their beaks - both of them within an hour. He then caused one of them to have a bare naked bohonkus (butt) because he ripped out all her chick fuzz.

I have never seen him peck at a single thing. What he does is open his beak on whatever he has an interest in, snap it shut and yank really hard. He does it with water as well, and his food, and my fingers. He ripped off the cuticle of my pointer finger while I was wiping his pasty butt (and I'm extremely gentle with them). He has also taken to squawking, not peeping, and he just plain looks mean as well. He's gorgeous in all actuality (apart from those pesky hocks that are forming) but even his facial features scream "I'm obnoxious". I named him Mr. McNaughtyface and my husband calls him something I can't write in this forum. -_-

Everything in the baby brooder has been complete harmony and peace since I removed him from there and placed him in his own brooder. He acts completely indifferent to the fact that he is alone and struts around with his beak in the air...doesn't chuck a fit like a lonely chick would normally. When I say a chick has a temper, it must be absolutely horrible because I know chicks can be mean sometimes. "mean" does not cover this baby.

I want to make it very clear - especially to you Amanda - that I am not killing chickens left and right. I've only culled the Silkie thus far because she was *severely deformed* there was NO WAY she could live anything close to a happy life. My husband culled a D'uccle a couple of months ago because he was a very problematic roo ( alot like this brahma is actually).

I'm sorry I seem to have offended so many people, I just for whatever reason have chosen to strongly support preserving breeds rather than making them murky. I am sorry I offended, though.

Thwack! Prob solved

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Thank you Trav I appreciate it. I do know I can come across as harsh sometimes (particularly when I feel my opinion is being judged by close-mindedness) but I try to right it when I slip. In any case, I don't think Mr. McNaughtyface is blind. On day 1 and 2 I always feed my chicks Grow Gel Plus B, and then start them on chick starter on day 3 and keep them on that, no more of the grow gel. It's an "extreme green" color, similar to bright emerald. When I placed it in their brooder he was the first one to scurry over to investigate it and wolf it down. When the other chicks realized that something interesting was in the brooder, they wandered over to partake in his enjoyable meal. That was the first time he began bloodying their beaks. He didn't stop until they were about a half a foot's length away from his green goodies...at which time he left them alone. The second dose of beak bloodying occurred when he was getting a drink and they wanted to drink too - he has absolutely no part in them being anywhere near him at all, but particularly when he is eating or drinking something interesting (and water was interesting at that time because it was still something new).

The buttfuzz yanking occurred when Toffee (one of what I think is a female) began trying to snuggle with him around their bedtime the second evening. I shut the lights off in there around 8pm apart from the red heatlamp. She didn't do *anything* other than snuggle beside him for sleeptime and he chucked a complete fit and ran around the brooder yanking at her bottom. I grabbed him eventually but they are very slippery little suckers and they are not easy to get a hold of. Her entire "tail section" I guess you would call it, is still naked almost a week later.

Due to the reasons he snaps and yanks his beak and the times I've noticed him doing it the most - I really don't think it's a sight issue. I think he's just a complete horse's butt. o.o

Many people will probably be thinking...geez he's a baby chick cut him some slack...but I've had a TON of chicks in this house for three months now (not all at once) and only 2 cockerels thus far (him and the d'uccle) have acted like this. I really think he's just a Rosemary's Baby chicken.

Edited to add: thank you Marine...finally seeing where you and some others were coming from in the posts I read and was initially appalled by. I'm not enjoying my humble pie. lol

Eh pour some sugar on it, it'll go down easier Learnin as ya go is usually the best way to learn

 

[CluckyCharms]

No it's not. It's called being a responsible breeder. 3 years ago I discovered a Wry Neck gene in my birds and I culled every bird that had the gene so it wouldn't screw up the project on that color variety. It was hard work figuring out who had the gene, but people will thank me. They would be very angry by now if I had let that destroy the whole project.

Clucky, did you see what I wrote?

Now I did! lol I left the byc screen up when I went to tend to the you guessed it - chicks earlier and when I came back and checked on it, yours must have been near the bottom because I didn't see it. I really need to remember there is a scroll bar there. haha I don't know you but I thank you for setting my mind at ease. It was scary-difficult to even write this post because I knew how most here felt about their chickens (I felt the same way when I first got into them). It may not seem like it but I DID try to write it in an inoffensive tone (I guess I failed at that). For whatever reason I've just spun around and I look at them differently now. They're more important for me to have a vested interest in now and...it's just different (can't explain it).

It sounds to me like you did the right thing for your project because had you not - that may have turned into one very messy situation for those chickens and those born from them. May I ask what your project was? I LOVE project birds...well...depending. I love projects when people keep to the SOP in everything other than color and they fiddle with feather lacing and such, some of those creations are just gorgeous. Thank you again.

 

[CluckyCharms]

I also wanted to clarify why I believe in culling flawed examples of a specific purebred chicken. What I mean by flaw is not what some think I mean. I'm referring to flaws that would disqualify an otherwise good example of a certain breed from meeting the SOP of that breed. I don't mean personal preference in regard to small features. Anyone who has an animal that has its "bits" intact, is a potential breeder. It doesn't matter if you only have females or only males; it only takes 1 of yours and 1 of someone else.

Your vulture-hocked Brahma that you have chosen to keep for backyard egg production in a city environment has somehow escaped your yard while you were out grocery shopping (or whatever it is you do). Or...someone accidentally leaves the coop door open and out it went (don't say it doesn't happen - it does - all the time). Now, let's say that John Doe Newbie lives three miles from you on the outskirts of town and he can have however many chickens and roos he wants to have. He was blessed enough to receive some excellent stock of quality Brahmas of the same variety - not a thing at all wrong with them, no vulture hocks, no feather flaws, nothing but prime examples of the breed. However, John doesn't know about vulture hocks because he's new to chickens, and was simply blessed to get excellent stock from a reputable breeder (this also happens all the time). He's driving home from work and notices a stray chicken wandering around. In appearance this bird is exactly like his and he has a natural reaction "OMG one of my birds got out!" says John. A year later, John finds out about vulture hocks and notices that a great deal of his flock is full of vulture-hocked birds. John is angry because he feels he was taken advantage of by the seller because he was new, and they must have lied to him and told him these birds were excellent quality and here he has hockies everywhere.

He has hockies because you decided that it was okay to own a vulture-hocked chicken, because after all - it was only a backyard bird used for eggs.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

Cluckycharms, I used to feel the way you used to feel about chickens, but over time my philosophies have changed to something very similar to yours as unpopular as it seems to be. I had a chick *exactly* like the cockerel you described. Literally ripped the faces off the other chicks at a day old repeatedly and viciously, and I removed it, separated it and eventually culled it. I debated for a while and then decided it was the right thing to do, for the good of the rest of the flock. Peace returned to the others immediately. I saw a collective sigh of relief.

I cull for respiratory illness, deformities and terrible temperaments. I heard from someone who has had chickens for many decades that your flock will be whatever you will tolerate. If you tolerate sick birds, your birds will be sick. If you tolerate mean birds, they'll be mean. I don't enjoy it by any means, but I do what is necessary for the greater good of the majority of the flock.

Thanks very much for your post.

 

[Funky Feathers]

No it's not. It's called being a responsible breeder. 3 years ago I discovered a Wry Neck gene in my birds and I culled every bird that had the gene so it wouldn't screw up the project on that color variety. It was hard work figuring out who had the gene, but people will thank me. They would be very angry by now if I had let that destroy the whole project.

Clucky, did you see what I wrote?

Now I did! lol  I left the byc screen up when I went to tend to the you guessed it - chicks earlier and when I came back and checked on it, yours must have been near the bottom because I didn't see it.  I really need to remember there is a scroll bar there. haha   I don't know you but I thank you for setting my mind at ease.  It was scary-difficult to even write this post because I knew how most here felt about their chickens (I felt the same way when I first got into them).   It may not seem like it but I DID try to write it in an inoffensive tone (I guess I failed at that). For whatever reason I've just spun around and I look at them differently now.  They're more important for me to have a vested interest in now and...it's just different (can't explain it).

It sounds to me like you did the right thing for your project because had you not - that may have turned into one very messy situation for those chickens and those born from them.  May I ask what your project was? I LOVE project birds...well...depending. I love projects when people keep to the SOP in everything other than color and they fiddle with feather lacing and such, some of those creations are just gorgeous.   Thank you again.

Mille Fleur Cochins (bantam). Wry Neck would have ruined the project for everyone in it.

ETA: An old customer of mine, 3 years ago bought some of them from me right around the time I discovered the problem. I told her to please cull them, I gave her a full refund, was very polite to her, and to this day she is still spouting off nasty comments about me, saying I have "inferior stock"! So I cull HARD. What do ppl not understand about that??

 

[CluckyCharms]

Mille Fleur Cochins (bantam). Wry Neck would have ruined the project for everyone in it.
ETA: An old customer of mine, 3 years ago bought some of them from me right around the time I discovered the problem. I told her to please cull them, I gave her a full refund, was very polite to her, and to this day she is still spouting off nasty comments about me, saying I have "inferior stock"! So I cull HARD. What do ppl not understand about that??

Would she rather you not said a word and let her have a flock full of wry neck birds? She should have been thanking you for being honest and bringing to her attention that there was a problem, and admiring you for requesting that she cull them as not to further breed the wry. I don't understand some people, but I guess that's why we're all different.