How often do you cull your older birds?

[diggergal]

This has been an interesting thread. This is my first flock. My plan was to not get too attached; to be practical and cull when egg laying dropped off. Ridgerunner's rotation plan sounded very sensible. Not sure how he integrates the new pullets into his flock without pecking order problems, but probably has a better set up than I do.

I can already see I have a problem with my plan. Chickens have way more personalities than I expected.

I wanted a flock of layers but I am afraid they may turn into pets. I will keep reading BYC and in the end do the best for my own situation.

 

[galanie]

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I was exactly the same way with my first four. They weren't going to be pets; they weren't going to have names. Then all got names. Then they started following me everywhere and we have special trips out front to debug the rose beds. They know exactly how far they can go out there, they don't get near the street any more nor do they wander onto the neighbors lawns. The newer ones though, I like them but they just aren't my first girls hehe.

 

[yinepu]

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That's how I check ours and how I have checked them for the past 45 years.. I hate the idea of culling a hen who is still producing well past what the books say she should.. but also there's no point in continuing to feed a hen who is just taking up space on the roost.. that may sound harsh.. but ours aren't pets.. we have them for meat and eggs.

 

[gryeyes]

My birds are not yet old enough to even consider culling due to reduced laying ability. None of my roosters lay, but I'm keeping them. My dogs and cats do not lay, and my oldest dog is coming up on his 13th birthday. I feed and care for them, so I will do the same for my chic hens, ducks and geese.

The hens will continue to catch bugs their entire lives. They will continue to amuse and amaze me with their antics. They have a Forever Home with me.

Yah, I'm one of THOSE chicken keepers.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

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that's my plan to since they will be giving me eggs they can live happy until they die from old age and my hens ain't pets but if they lay they stay. I only cull roosters.

 

[ChickyLoo]

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I was exactly the same way with my first four. They weren't going to be pets; they weren't going to have names. Then all got names. Then they started following me everywhere and we have special trips out front to debug the rose beds. They know exactly how far they can go out there, they don't get near the street any more nor do they wander onto the neighbors lawns. The newer ones though, I like them but they just aren't my first girls hehe.

I am very surprised to find myself getting attached to mine that were inherited from my Mom also. I had no idea how personable they can be! They've survived 2 raccoon attacks at my Mom's place one of them limps because of that and the rooster's feathers are still growing back from that ordeal. Luckily where we are we don't seem to have a big problem with predators other then hawks. I told my DH that out of the 9 that are left I absolutely don't want to cull 4 of them. My daughter has named them all even though we told her not to, but she's 7 despite her age she has a very practical understanding of the chicken's job as far as being food for us. I have a harder time but so far we are keeping Limpy, Lumpy, Nugget and Snow Belle who is laying on her 6eggs as we speak

But then when I look at them it's hard to say OK it's time for that one...I don't know what we're going to do

but we have 25 layers coming some duckies and hopefully 6 more chickies. At some point we'll have to thin the flock for financial reasons. It will get expensive feeding all these gals even with scraps. I'm going to call my grocery stores though for veggie trimmings and maybe old bread. Plus we have a bountiful garden so we'll be set for a while until Winter comes. That's when we'll have to really buckle down and be practical.

 

[yinepu]

Right now I have over 100 chickens. Lets assume the average chicken didn't die until it was 5 from "old age".. And lets assume I decided to never cull a bird again.. and naturally every year I have to add in birds to replace the ones who are too old to lay any more.... how long before "chicken math" would overwhelm our home?
That makes my head hurt just to think about it....
Sorry.. i do love my birds.. but I also have to be realistic about keeping them

 

[ChickyLoo]

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I think for people with smaller flocks it's harder to share that viewpoint. I can't imagine the expense of keeping 100 chickens & not being practical. Good for you

you don't need to apologize IMO

 

[Avalon1984]

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This is my 2nd year of having chickens with a large amount of chicks growing in several chicken houses and brooders. My layers are in a very long moult and slowly coming out of it. I know exactly what you mean. 15 adult birds and 60+ chicks between 4 months and 1month old on the way...I will have to make some room. I have found culling to be somewhat of a relief. I have culled 2 roos that terrorized my layers and once they were gone, I was able to move more productive birds into the chicken house that don't rip feathers out of my layers. All in all a good experience. Sadly, next year I will have to begin culling my first ever layers that I all named. But I will be strong and pick out a layer or two as a pet.

 

[lynnemabry]

So far I have been blessed with nature doing all of my culling.
Not usually the bird I want to go but it does allow me the chance to get more birds.
I did cull one roo for being violent (to all.)
As for due to age. I hope not.
Too many roos maybe.