How do I choose what to keep

[tjs]

I have 17, 4 week old buff Orpingtons. I plan on only keeping 4-5 hens and one rooster. The rest will go into the freezer. This is my first time with chickens. How do I decide what birds to keep? I know I have 4-5 roosters in the bunch. At what age should I cull the extras birds?

 

[quackingdom]

I butcher at 12-16 weeks, but that's Muscovies. I think chickens are usually butchered a little earlier. Just do it sometime before they start fighting.

It probably doesn't matter which rooster you keep as long as they're healthy and have a good temperament.

 

[tjs]

I butcher at 12-16 weeks, but that's Muscovies. I think chickens are usually butchered a little earlier. Just do it sometime before they start fighting.

It probably doesn't matter which rooster you keep as long as they're healthy and have a good temperament.

Thanks

 

[Mrs. K]

To pick the best, you really need to handle them, measure and weigh them. Checking the sop is a good idea. But other things to check for: Look carefully at their legs, they need to be good and have good feet, their nails should be worn evenly. Touch their breast area, thin ones should be culled. Look at their head shapes, and beaks, need to meet straight together. If you keep good records, generally speaking, heavier and maturity earlier are good signs.

Feathers hide a lot of sins, you really need to handle each one, getting the feel of the structure underneath those feathers. Handle maybe all of them, to get a sense of what you are looking for, separate them how you think, then handle them all again. I would divide into half, then divide the half into half again, and that top 25% would be what you keep, give or take.

It is often helpful to cull in different sessions. First cull, earliest cull, small, thin poor doers. A couple of weeks later, cull again. Rooster genetics will have the biggest impact long term on your flock. Leave two or three if you can as long as possible, but again early maturity, good fleshing and disposition of a rooster is very important.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

16 - 20 weeks. It is very helpful if you have two pens. Keeping the cull birds confined, not allowing free ranging, will make the meat more tender, but even so, it is a different texture than store bought meat. Be sure and age the meat in the fridge a bit. Art often grills young birds at about 16 weeks, I think.

 

[RUNuts]

tjs,
Are you planning on keeping the remaining to breed? One rooster, so I would assume you are raising chicks.

Mrs. K,
I'm not allowed a rooster (but plan to move any decade now) so I am only keeping for egg laying. Same specifications? Eat the smallest and keep the largest for the eggs?

Or in my case, eat the dual purpose and keep the leghorns for eggs? We got a mixed flock for no good reason. Wife wanted leghorns, so we mixed a few breeds and wound up with 3 dark reds (RIR or New Hampshire?), 3 light reds (production reds?), 11 barred rock and 8 leghorns.

Personality wise, I'd eat the leghorns and choose a couple of the barred rocks for layers.

Cheers and thanks

 

[tjs]

Thank you for your incite. I learn so much in this group.

 

[Mrs. K]

Runuts -If you got them for eggs, keep the leghorns and production reds. Those are laying birds. But they tend to lay well and live for only a couple of years (some people get really old chickens, but to me a really old chicken is 4).

For egg laying, I would keep the girls whose combs redden first. Those will lay first. Egg laying flocks need to be replaced often. A good rule of thumb is 1/3 out / 1/3 in each year. So if you had room for 12 birds, you would cull 4 each year and add 4 each year. Or if this is your first year, get 8 birds, add 4 next year, and then start culling and adding new birds.

 

[RUNuts]

Thanks to tjs for making me think. I had a plan, then my lovely bride decided to help...

Mrs. K - good thoughts. The unknowns at this time are how many eggs we are going to want and how much meat. For such things, I will have to consult a crystal ball. I think the new plan is to harvest a few before POL. Get swamped with eggs and pare down to some happy medium. This should get me through winter. Stable flock for summer and ready for chicks(?) next winter.

If we rotate (and I can get away from leghorns), focus on dual purpose. Keep the early layers through until the next flock starts laying. Then I just need to decide when the first flock is gone and when to order more chicks.

Cheers!

 

[Mrs. K]

Truthfully, if you knew how many plans I have made, to never quite bring them off. Death is a reality of chickens, predators are a reality for my and chickens, and unexpected opportunity to get some other birds... I know how you are suppose to plan, but planning takes months to years to enact, and life happens in between.