How in the heck does everyone cull???

[faykokoWV]

Are you having trouble parting with them or nobody want to buy them? how do you get attached to 100 birds? do they all have names?

 

[SunAngel]

Quote:
Well, right now I only have 23 standard hens, a trio of Blue Ameraucanas, 13 bantam hens and 6 adult ducks. Now I am down to maybe 65 chicks/juvies. I was getting 22 chicken eggs and 4 duck eggs a day, but now with broodies, I am only getting 6-10 eggs a day and 3 duck eggs. I use some eggs of course, sell some and give some away to family and close friends. Sometimes I even feed extra bantam eggs back to the chickens.

I go through a bag of layer crumbles, a bag of 15% grower and a bag of scratch ($35).. in maybe a week and a half, sometimes 2. The bag of 20% ($15) chick starter lasts even longer. I don't usually have to clean feeders, they are homemade PVC ones. Waterers take about an hour every 2 days to dump out, scrub a little and refil...not a big deal. I totally clean out all the coops & brooders every 2 weeks. I spot clean, turn over bedding or add more straw/shavings during that time. If it smells too bad before that time, I will do an extra cleaning. It takes maybe 2 hours tops to do all the coops/brooders. In the winter I carried out buckets of warm water twice a day sometimes, the waterers are all in the coops so they don't freeze right away. I didn't bother shovelling a path to the coops, just the ramp into my main coop and I would shovel a big spot in each run so they could find dirt to scratch in on milder days.

I don't think I would want 100+ adult birds, but lots of people on here have that many. I think I will end up with around 65 (2 of which will be roos), but they will be in 3 different coops/runs. Its funny how fast they add up because it never looks like you have that many. If 65 turns out to be too much, then I will downsize again, but only if I have to.

My incubator is borrowed from a friend and I have my own Blue Ameraucana and duck eggs to incubate right now. Plus I have friends that give me hatching eggs, or I have traded eggs with other BYCers. Then there is my 12-14 broody hens I have been using as incubators. The last month or so, I have sold enough eggs, chicks and chickens at the auction to pay for feed and shavings.

Now that all my coops are built and the only expense is food and some shavings, I am finding chickens to be a lot less expensive than most other hobbies. I also look at the fact that if anything happens economy wise, I will have at least 2 months worth of food sitting out in those coops to keep my family fed.

 

[SunAngel]

Quote:
I have 3 acres and I think my chickens/ducks take up approx a 50x60 spot, give or take a little. They are the only outside animals I have though.

 

[PeepsInc]

3 acres & over 35 birds most are juvenile Bantams. I'm a hunter that does his own butchering. I have little problem culling a bird to feed my family, or to help a friend. Yet I have a hard time putting down an injured chick. I have a baby pheasant that keeps using its head as a kick stand (neck injury), but every time I feel sorry enough for it to cull it, It begins priming its self or feeding. I keep saying I'll give it till tomorrow.

It has no chance of healing if I cull it?.....Anyways, recruit a friend to help you.There usually less discriminate than you'll be.

 

[SunAngel]

We seem to get corrected around here if we use the term 'cull' to mean killing. So I was using it in the sense of just downsizing...culling out the chicks/juvies/adults to keep things from getting out of hand.

Its been just over a year since we got our first chickens and I have only had to kill a few chicks that hatched with problems. Haven't had the nerve to kill anything for the table yet. I usually end up selling unwanted chicks/chickens at the auction to buy more chicken food instead.

 

[Heather J]

I just offered to sell four pullets to a neighbor, nearly killed me to do so, but I have 16 LF girls, and my bantams, and a bunch of chicks, and oodles of eggs in the 'bator. I HATE to let these sweeties go, but I really have to. It took me months to get to the point where I could accept that and deal with it. I ought to sell a few more, but my other mutts are getting older and I don't know how old (they were given to me), so I don't feel good about selling them.

I have also processed some roosters, but I don't ever name them if I'm going to eat them, way too hard.