Culling chicks

[grandparooster]

I have a freind who culls his male chicks after about 48 hours because he runs a small egg farm I would call it with 300+ hens and it isn't financially viable for him to keep all of his roosters. he keeps maybe one every once in a while for breeding purposes but the rest he brings to the cutting board. i am curious as to what you think about this. I am kind of on his side and we live in an area where alot of people are against roosters so no one wants them Please post replies

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Well, I guess that's better than them living where they are unwanted, and (nothing against your friend) probably not kept in prime conditions (since you said he didn't have room for them). Of course, if he kept them until butchering weight, that would open up a whole other avenue for his business...

 

[dumb_cluck]

That's pretty good that he can identify all the roos in 48hrs. I wonder though how many pullets were killed......
What does he do with the bodies?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is standard practice in commercial operations. To me, there is a big difference in someone keeping chickens to try to support his/her family and someone keeping a few chickens as a hobby like most of us do. That's why the sex linked chickens are so important to the commercial operations. They can tell at hatch which are going to make them a profit if they feed them and which are going to eat up their bank account. There is also a big difference in an egg laying operation and a meat raising operation. To maximize efficiency, you need to concentrate on one or the other.

I believe your post is more on the morality of your friend trying to raise and keep chickens profitably than on his actual operations, but I don't understand one thing. As Dumb_Cluck said, how does he tell which are pullets and which are roosters? If he is keeping roosters for breeding purposes, he cannot have sexlinks. Maybe he has three separate flocks. One for egg laying purposes, one to breed the fathers of the egg layers, and one to breed the mothers of the egg layers? Anyway, doesn't matter. There are different ways to do it.

 

[mstricer]

I think it would be great to be able to do this. I right now have about 12 roosters in my yard who are chasing my hens and me. They are ridiculously annoying, I've been keeping them till I could eat them its been hard, but now I've just been catching them and putting them in a little death row pen and kill about 4 every couple days. Those of you who say it is ridiculous to cull them, should have to pay for the feed that is required with little return. Even at 16 wks they have very little meat on them. My dogs and cats are happy though. Don't hate until you are in his shoes.

 

[grandparooster]

Yes, for those of you questioning why he is good at sexing his father used to work in a hatchery befor ehe passed away, and my freind learned from his father.

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Just tell your buddy to place all his roosters in A small box with air holes and mail em to me. They all taste like Chicken.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
This explains it. He can vent sex. He does not have to worry about sex links.

 

[mlove]

I would not be able to do it but... your friend can sell unwanted chicks to people that keep large snakes as pets. Big snakes (pythons, boas, etc) cost a fortune to feed when using rats, mice and rabbits. That way the chicks don't go to waste and he can make money off of them. Some people feed live and others feed frozen. He can place an ad in his local Craigslist in the pets section.