We keep all of our unwanted cockerels and grow them for meat. That might only be 6 weeks if we need the coops space, but we don't wasteful destroy life. We keep a laying flock and any hen that can lay an egg goes there or is sold as a breeders cull (we don't sell cull cockerels). Our incubation capacity is much smaller than yours. We only hatch about 3-4 dozen eggs at a time so a few breeding trios can supply all the eggs we need for hatching purposes.
Large capacity hatcheries in the US usually don't pair cockerels and hens to produce show quality birds. They usually use a breeding plan called flock mating. This plan keeps large flocks of about 200 hens and about 10 cockerels. Rather than hand pairing cockerel that offset the defects and weaknesses in the hen they let the whole flock run together and for the birds to have free selection. The difference is that only about one in 1000 birds from the hatchery is show quality where about one out of 10 birds in carefully culled and pair pen could achieve show quality.
Many lines are started from hatchery stock or from crossing two lines so that the line starts with a good cross section of the available gene pool. When they start they will have about 1 out of 10 birds that are good quality, 1 out of 100 that are really good, and one out of 1000 that are show quality. If the breeder only breeds from the good birds (top 10% of the flock) their first year and does a good job of culling and selection then in the 2nd generation the flock could be 1 out of 10 that are really good quality and one out of 100 that are show quality. If they repeat the process then in the 3rd generation they could arrive to where 1 out of 10 birds are show quality.
To maintain the flock in the top tier of the potential of their gene pool exhibition breeders must continue to cull and pair. Mother nature wants to distribute all the genes evenly over the birds and doesn't give preference to the ones that make the breed standards. You will hear people say that it only take two years for a good line to be ruined. The that is because without good culling and selection you move in the opposite dirrection. If you start with stock from a top exhibition line, but don't do a good job of culling and pairing you could go from a ratio of 1 show quality bird out of 10 to 1 out of 100 in your first generation, and in the year after that from one out of 100 to one out of 1000 that will be show quality. This is is what is called the rule of tens and it goes both way. By only breeding the top 10% you inproove the frequency of top quality birds and by failing to do that you decrease that frequency.
Large capacity hatcheries in the US usually don't pair cockerels and hens to produce show quality birds. They usually use a breeding plan called flock mating. This plan keeps large flocks of about 200 hens and about 10 cockerels. Rather than hand pairing cockerel that offset the defects and weaknesses in the hen they let the whole flock run together and for the birds to have free selection. The difference is that only about one in 1000 birds from the hatchery is show quality where about one out of 10 birds in carefully culled and pair pen could achieve show quality.
Many lines are started from hatchery stock or from crossing two lines so that the line starts with a good cross section of the available gene pool. When they start they will have about 1 out of 10 birds that are good quality, 1 out of 100 that are really good, and one out of 1000 that are show quality. If the breeder only breeds from the good birds (top 10% of the flock) their first year and does a good job of culling and selection then in the 2nd generation the flock could be 1 out of 10 that are really good quality and one out of 100 that are show quality. If they repeat the process then in the 3rd generation they could arrive to where 1 out of 10 birds are show quality.
To maintain the flock in the top tier of the potential of their gene pool exhibition breeders must continue to cull and pair. Mother nature wants to distribute all the genes evenly over the birds and doesn't give preference to the ones that make the breed standards. You will hear people say that it only take two years for a good line to be ruined. The that is because without good culling and selection you move in the opposite dirrection. If you start with stock from a top exhibition line, but don't do a good job of culling and pairing you could go from a ratio of 1 show quality bird out of 10 to 1 out of 100 in your first generation, and in the year after that from one out of 100 to one out of 1000 that will be show quality. This is is what is called the rule of tens and it goes both way. By only breeding the top 10% you inproove the frequency of top quality birds and by failing to do that you decrease that frequency.
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He is a good cockerel to his girls as he calls them over to fresh trays of food when I provide them and he is not overly exuberant in his breeding of them. His brother I have removed from the pen because he never gave the poor girls a break from breeding them and was always on them causing them to loose all of the feathers on their backs and heads, also he was difficult to handle. UGH!
