culling should be the easy thing to do.....

[cparian]

Quote:
Well said! I have problems culling but my last batch of chicks had one with a severe scissor beak. I tried my best to save her but from prior experience know how they suffer & couldn't bear to watch that again. Since I'm such a wimp I put mine in a open plastic baggie surrounded by paper towels then put this into an open black garbage bag, put it under my car tire & quickly ran over it. Its instant, no suffering, & I didn't have to see it.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

I vote Cull if you do not think she will ever walk but if you choose not to Cull what I would do is build her a lil stand out of some 2x4's and chicken wire this way she can't go anywhere and it will give you a chance to see if her legs are even working.

(The 2x4's on their side screwed togther chicken wire on top put her legs through it you will only need 3 sides since she is so small)
Make sure that you have feed and water their for her as for not beig able to eat the crumbles gind it smaller in a food mill or coffee grinder this way it will be a powder and may help her with all the things she needs to have like vitams and minerals things such as that.
Just My 3 cents worth of what I would do.
Good Luck to you

 

[HerbiLady]

Quote:
Whoa...I never would have thought about that way of doing it in a hundred years! I think a lot of us have a hard time culling and you would think I'd be braver about it after growing up on a farm and helping with the butchering that we did. It was a whole family thing...if you wanted to eat, you were part of the process although my sister and I didn't have to actually kill anything. We did have to help pack the meat and pluck, etc. and we did see the butchering.

Heck, I don't even kill spiders anymore but I do eat meat and I will take my birds and other livestock to someone else for butchering. Or I could ask my Dad I suppose and share the meat with him. On one hand, I feel guilty that I don't do it myself personally but I'm also grateful that I have other options.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Whoa...I never would have thought about that way of doing it in a hundred years! I think a lot of us have a hard time culling and you would think I'd be braver about it after growing up on a farm and helping with the butchering that we did. It was a whole family thing...if you wanted to eat, you were part of the process although my sister and I didn't have to actually kill anything. We did have to help pack the meat and pluck, etc. and we did see the butchering.

Heck, I don't even kill spiders anymore but I do eat meat and I will take my birds and other livestock to someone else for butchering. Or I could ask my Dad I suppose and share the meat with him. On one hand, I feel guilty that I don't do it myself personally but I'm also grateful that I have other options.

I don't have a hard time killing things to eat.
I guess I'm "conditioned" to think of spare roosters and steers as food from the get-go. Chicks I'm "conditioned" to think of as future layers, or at least future birds. They're just babies, ya know, they have "potential" and I guess it's hard to force your self to accept that THIS particular chick does NOT have a good potential.

It is done.
I buried her out by the coop in the "graveyard" next to some other young chickens who also didn't make it this spring.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm sorry, Tala. Such is life with chickens, but it never gets easier to let a little one go.

 

[HLAC]

Sorry about the chick.

You did the right thing even though it was the hard thing.

 

[HerbiLady]

Sorry to hear you had to do it...the hard part about keeping chickens ain't fun, that's for sure

I hope you are resting easier and able to enjoy the rest of the little buggers...