humanely culling young ducklings or chicks please !

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
But if that few days of life a sick chick or duckling lives is full of suffering until it eventually dies is it more humane to let it live on? Or help it along to a better place?

If it is sick, I do what I can to get it healthy again...

Sometimes you can, but sometimes you can't. I had a chick born with some kind of hole or something in its butt and its guts were falling out

 

[michelle b 1972]

gosh.. this is a lively debate !

thanks to everyone for your opinions... personally i have a fear of drowning so i dont think i would be able to do the water one.... well... i dont think i could do any.... well.. i wont be doing .. it will be my hubby ! the pic i posted is probably my best bet ... and i hope i am never in a situation that requires us to cull them ! thats why i wont hatch chicken eggs..... cockerals are beautiful birds...more magnificent than the girls and to me it is wrong to cull them also... but, they cant live with other males and so it has to happen ! i just wish there was some way of determining the sex of the ducklings/chicks while inside the egg, that way it would be so much easier to remove them without the guilt !
anyway
thanks everyone
michelle x

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Quote:
I have to correct you here, sorry. I know a lot of people say that you can't have multiple cockerels(roosters) living together, however this is a relatively large joke to me. It is my experience that they do just fine, so long as they are raised together. They will jocky for flock leader in the first few months of their life, once they have it sorted out you will not have another problem. In our most recent purchase of chicks(prior to hatching our own), we ended up with 2 roos. 1 was a 50/50 chance(straight run), the other was supposed to be a BG hen. They are roughly 2-3 weeks apart in age and had some minor spats when first put together, but lived in complete harmony in (and out of) our 12x13 barn for 7 months. We only recently sold the BG roo to a farm in RI, due to wanting to have some eating eggs from our hens.

Here is a pic of them in the barn, the boys were usually right side by side(great for picture taking):

 

[vebyrd36]

I would have to agree. I have Roos that live together. As for as harvesting we use the old fashion method. It is quick. In all honesty I raise my flock to supplement my family and to raise funds for the family. I do have some birds as pets. The key is to remember the end result for the birds. I know some people wood be offended and I will say I'm sorry in advance. I hope this helps

 

[michelle b 1972]

O.M.G. i am blown away with this pic.... im so shocked ! hhhhmmmmmmmmm now you have got me thinking .

only 1 other problem..... i live in the city and cant keep a roo due to the noise ! we are looking to buy a farm type house with a bit of land...... then i will keep my roo's............. thankyou sooooooooo much
michelle

 

[Katy]

For very young chicks or ducklings I use starter fluid (ether). Soak a rag with the ether and place in an airtight container (I use a gallon coffee can) with the chick. Do this outside. Make sure you get starter fluid, not charcoal starter....too entirely different things. You can get starter fluid from any auto parts store.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Sure if you raise roosters together they can live together. But what happens when you have a bunch at different ages?? What happens when you run out of room?? Do you have enough space and or coops to house all those batchelors quarters??? Why would you want to feed all these animals?? I raise extra roos to feed my family..

As far as culling goes you've already been given the best way to go and that's the shears. Remember this is what's "best" for the chick not for the one doing the culling!!

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Quote:
Any "extra" roos here would be raised for one of three purposes: 1) Free Range pest control 2) reboosting our laying stock(IE: chicks) 3) Meat to feed our family & less fortunate friends
Edited to add: We are building a second barn, virtually identical to the one we already have {see my avatar picture} to house all of our male animals(rooster, caponized roos, stud goats, and wethers)

 

[NonnasBabies]

Quote:
Any "extra" roos here would be raised for one of three purposes: 1) Free Range pest control 2) reboosting our laying stock(IE: chicks) 3) Meat to feed our family & less fortunate friends
Edited to add: We are building a second barn, virtually identical to the one we already have {see my avatar picture} to house all of our male animals(rooster, caponized roos, stud goats, and wethers)

Well see you have the room for all those boys!! I refuse to let all the extras free range with my flock because it causes nothing but discord! I have 3 roo's with 46 girls and they barely get along with each other as it is. The last 7 that I processed a few months back I had to keep them penned. The one time I tried to let them out OMG their were fights going on everywheres!!

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

I have all my roosters living together, sometimes you get a nasty one that causes trouble and he becomes dinner. The rest are used for breeding