How much culling/selling in serious breeding?

[damselfish]

I'm not currently ready to start breeding chickens, but it's something I have thought about as a possibility over the next couple of years. I'm wondering if any of you breeders can give me some generalized guidance on this question.

Assuming I start with a good line of chickens from a reputable breeder, is it likely that I'd end up with 1% chicks worth breeding forward? 10%? Some other number?

It will help me think about incubators, brooding space, etc. and whether this is a realistic idea for me.

No doubt I can sell some off extras as egglayers/pets or use them as meat birds at home, I'm just hoping for a general idea on how many might be "worth keeping" either to breed myself or to sell as breeders. I don't think my local market could necessarily absorb 99 rare-breed chickens in order for me to keep one, for instance.

Thanks for any input, I know it's one of those "it depends" questions!

 

[joe17]

Well Im not a breeder yet but I have ear that for about every ten chicks, you get one " good " one and that from a good breeder too. A lot of culling is involved with chicks. Serious breeders start of with hundreds of chicks at a time a breed non stop.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I am working on building a good flock that meets the SOP

Here is what my "breeder friend/mentor" told me.

Read chapters 1,2,3 and remember the rule of 10

Hope this helps you like it did me!!

http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/chickens.html

Scott

 

[TK Poultry]

Its really mine boggling the amount of chicks you need to hatch off a year to get the ones you really want, especially if you are breeding toward something in particular.

 

[joe17]

That was a great article! I bookmarked it!

 

[damselfish]

Thanks to all and particularly Scott, I have just started reading those articles. They're just great...I started with the one the meat birds where they show how to measure the living chicken and the carcass in comparative pictures. Really, really helpful stuff.

...goes away whistling, always happy when she has some cool research stuff to read...

 

[wclawrence]

its that much harder when you are trying to develop something that is not already out there. (project breeding)

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Quote:
WCLAWRENCE

You're just one county south of me!! Howdy neighbor!

Bad storms just finished here....power was out for over an hour, but at least it cooled down a bit

 

[CityChicker]

It really does boil down to what you said- "it depends". There is really no way to answer your question. There are too many factors. It depends on the stock, what you are breeding for, your own skill level, how harshly you judge your stock, how many birds you hatch, etc.... I could go on and on and on....

Breeding good birds is a learning process. You have to have an eye for what to look for and know what to breed for and how to get there. Good breeders learn how to pair birds in the best way possible to improve on their lines. There seems to be a lot of breeders these days that don't really, truly selectively breed. They buy birds from all of the "big name" breeders, throw them all together, and just allow them to breed. If that is the route a person takes, it is always going to be a shot in the dark. You have to understand what you are doing and have a goal in mind. Too many people don't have either and therefore, they are always chasing their tails.

There is a lot more to "serious breeding" than throwing two birds in a cage and hatching babies. I have seen a huge influx of new people into the hobby in the last few years and there are far too many people that think that is all there is to breeding good quality birds. I am talking people that have been at this less than 5 years and advertise that they have birds from every line under the sun that has ever been heard of by more than two people (another huge pet peeve of mine). You have to decide whether you will be that type of breeder or the type that studies the standard, knows what a "good" bird even is, and how to breed for it. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of breeders in the hobby that are of that caliber. Those that are though naturally are going to breed a lower percentage of culls.

 

[joe17]

I agree mostly with City Chicker. Sometimes people put the name of where they obtain their flock from to let people know the blood line. Nothing wrong with that. If they are using the name to sell birds, then that is aggravating. I have to say, I know some people just throw chickens together from a good breeder and sell them put in my case, why would you spend all that money raising, caring, and feeding the birds if you dont care about breeding them. Even some of the best breeders still have a bunch of culls though and most serious breeders do selectively breed. The newbies typically need to learn from their mistakes that way. When they realize they arent producing good birds, they will think twice.