- Jan 14, 2008
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Sometimes 2 nearly perfect birds will produce nothing but culls. Genetics is at some level a crap shoot. I wish it was the case that every chick produced from a quality mating grew up to be worth breeding & showing. If that was so I'd spend a lot less on feed. The reality is that a good outcome is one bird worth keeping for every 10 hatched. Sometimes you'll do better than that & sometimes worse. I just did the final cull on this year's Dominique cockerels. This is the third time I've gone through them & there were 12 that made it this far. I ended up keeping 4 & sending the other 8 to the auction. I started with 38 cockerels to end up with the 4 I kept. Two I'll use in next year's matings & two I'll sell.
Breeding from someone else's culls will in all liklihood produce nothing but more culls. There is the occasional exception, remember that crap shoot thing. Sometimes the genes will line up in unexpected ways & produce a veritable "silk purse from a sows ear", but it doesn't happen often.
Breeding from someone else's culls will in all liklihood produce nothing but more culls. There is the occasional exception, remember that crap shoot thing. Sometimes the genes will line up in unexpected ways & produce a veritable "silk purse from a sows ear", but it doesn't happen often.