Dear Speckled Hen:
In March, I got four one day olds chicks. They came from two different sources. My Jersey Giant came from a feed store through Ideal. This chick and her mates were trucked through Arizona and came through an ice storm. When the feed store picked them up at the post office, there were thirty dead chicks in the box. Jessie was one of the survivors.
For the first few days everything at home seemed OK. Then Jessie started falling over and getting knock over by the others. At first I thought maybe it was some type of a disease. Then I realized that it might be a neurological injury due to being exposure to the cold weather.
I agonized over having to put her to sleep
or as you say culling. I was a veterinary technician for many years and even with this insight, I could not bring myself to kill her. Every day she would hold her own eating and pushing back at the others in her small pen.
Then it came time to introduce the little ones to the out of doors. She and the others were so thrilled to be outside and she still was falling head over teakettle in her enthusiasm every time they ran outside. They all started eating and testing all of the weeds in my yard. At first, I thought it was just my imagination, but Jessie seemed to be getting better. As the days went on she got stronger, she was climbing, running and chest bumping and NOT falling over.
I personally think that there was some magic potion in those weeds. Maybe being such a big breed of bird, maybe she just needed the exercise. Whatever it was, I am so glad that I never culled her. She is now a big beautiful bird and a wonderful egg layer. As big as she is, she jumps up into my lap to sit and purrs for me.
Sometimes you just have to listen with your heart
.and life finds a way.