How do you cull unwanted chicks ?

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i'm not sure exactly what vet's use, but for little chicks they do not do injections. i only know because i took a new-born chick to a vet right after it was born with it's intestines out. They said they put it in a container with gas and it quietly goes to sleep.

So sorry, Jenichick. What a heart-wrenching experience. Something like that would make me retire from hatching for a very long time, too.

 

[allen wranch]

Jenichick,
I wonder if you used enough ether. I soak a paper towel real well and put the birds in a smallish container so they will breathe the fumes faster.

Now I am worrying if the birds I euthanized with ether were really just asleep and not dead.

 

[aquaponics3712]

How did you apply the ether to help them pass quickly?

 

[allen wranch]

Since my last post, I quit using ether to euthanize birds.

Research said that the type ether used is not painless and the birds do suffer. The either stings their eyes and lungs before they can get enough to die. It really makes me sick that I put these poor birds through this.

The last few times, I cut their heads off with scissors,(or had my husband do it if older birds). It is fast and they don't suffer.

Additional notation: Good quality or heavy scissors should be used, not something flimsy.

 

[Charli Jo]

It concerns me that when I post an ad for 5.00 for one or even 2 male chicks, there's not a single taker -even for a rare breed that some sell for 40.00 for a female. Yet when they are free, all the sudden people are interested and phases such as "he'll be my flock master for years" may be heard. Well if he going to be gracing you yard for years, why isnt he worth a couple of bucks??? I know people are silly and foolish when it comes to "free" but evenso I worry that if he isn't worth a couple of $ to them what care will be provided when given away. I wonder if culling humanely is better than "free"..

 

[3riverschick]

It concerns me that when I post an ad for 5.00 for one or even 2 male chicks, there's not a single taker -even for a rare breed that some sell for 40.00 for a female. Yet when they are free, all the sudden people are interested and phases such as "he'll be my flock master for years" may be heard. Well if he going to be gracing you yard for years, why isnt he worth a couple of bucks??? I know people are silly and foolish when it comes to "free" but evenso I worry that if he isn't worth a couple of $ to them what care will be provided when given away. I wonder if culling humanely is better than "free"..

Well they are probably going to eat them or feed them to their snakes. But if they told you that, you would not give or sell them the chicks. Honestly really, how many extra males chicks does the public really think go to be "flock guardians"? I am with you. maybe 1/10 of one percent. The rest of the transactions, the wording just makes people feel better about it. If I had extras, i woud post them with their genetic heritage. if not takrs in a week, I would cull them unless I needed the for a breeding program. The I would cull later. If the genetis were that good in the chicks that I was growing them out to deide later, i can proabbaly sell the extras to backlotters. But who is gonna pay moeny for a hatchery quality male,not many I think.
Best,
karen

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

omg. dont CULL anything. whatever that means! omg omg omg. put an add in the paper. ask your neighbors, find SOMEONE that will take them, jus dont take their lives!!!


where are you from? if i was close ID take them. but im in mississippi

People should only keep as many as they can keep healthy, nothing wrong with humane culling (killing) Breeders need to keep the best and cull the rest IMO

Gary

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: IMO, one should never plug in an incubator, or even allow a broody to set unless they have a responsible exit plan for the pullets and ALL OF THE COCKRELS that are not going to stay in the owner's flock. It is simply irresponsible husbandry to continue breeding year after year without thought to the management of the hatchlings. For that matter, there also needs to be a responsible exit plan for the older birds. Simply keeping them till they die at an older age due to physical decline or disease is a dis service to them. Lots and lots of posts re: hens that are in decline... not acting normal for days, before the owner finds the bird dead under the perch one morning. How much better to give her a humane and quick death before she is in noticeable discomfort.

 

[dheltzel]

IMO, one should never plug in an incubator, or even allow a broody to set unless they have a responsible exit plan for the pullets and ALL OF THE COCKRELS that are not going to stay in the owner's flock. It is simply irresponsible husbandry to continue breeding year after year without thought to the management of the hatchlings. For that matter, there also needs to be a responsible exit plan for the older birds. Simply keeping them till they die at an older age due to physical decline or disease is a dis service to them. Lots and lots of posts re: hens that are in decline... not acting normal for days, before the owner finds the bird dead under the perch one morning. How much better to give her a humane and quick death before she is in noticeable discomfort.

Right! and NEVER buy from a hatchery that sells pullet chicks either, you can be sure they cull the male chicks and you won't want that on your conscience. So the incubator getting plugged in is immaterial, the act of keeping any chickens is immoral by this standard unless you have the ability to keep all the roos in comfortable housing until their good days are all past them.

I don't like culling male chicks. My customers would prefer not to think about the fate of the brothers of the chicks they buy. I would prefer to not think about the chicken or turkey that is in my sandwich as the once living muscles of a bird much like my pets. Sometimes things we don't like are better just done and forgotten about.

Our existence is in a sanitized world where companies profit from helping us not to think about unpleasant things, like the conditions our food is raised in, or the fact that animals die to give us "Baconators". Farming, or any sort of husbandry, flies in the face of this trend. Does that make us bad, or simply realists?

 

[3riverschick]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying from a hatchery which sells pullet chicks. Culling male chicks is just part of the industry. Much as some may not like it.
On a more positive note, new research has discovered a way to "sniff" the eggs on the 1st day of incubation to determine sex in the eggs. This way, the males can be culled early and the eggs used for animal feed. There are several other methods of in ovo sex determination being studied right now. One involves a light beam very early on in incubation. I think in the next 2 years we will see one or more of the methods going industry wide as they become more advanced and practical.
Best,
Karen