Musing on the Fall Culling

[3KillerBs]

I should be sending my cull cockerels to Freezer Camp this weekend so I'm thinking that I'll pull my cull hens and put them into that pen so that I can more easily sell them and more easily collect the eggs from the ones I want to breed forward since I was planning to hatch a batch or two of chicks in Sept. and October (given that I live in a warm climate).

I'm pondering the criteria for said culling.

First, I have my oldest hens, who are entering their second molt. I *might* keep the California White, whose idea of slowing down laying in her second year is to give me eggs 6 days out of 7 instead of 28 out of 30, and the best of the Blue Australorps, the one who made me want to focus on that breed in the first place.

Second, among the ones from last fall's order I have a Lavender Orpington who had been mistaken for a very pale Blue Australorp and kept for her beauty. But her shredder gene has revealed her true breed and I don't need Lavender screwing up my blue genetics.

I have another overly pale Blue girl who can be replaced by one of the second generation pullets, who are much darker.

I love the Dominique's personality, but not her medium eggs so she should probably go.

I'm waffling on keeping one Mottled Java because she's promising as a broody -- IF I can get her to graft to a new nest instead of breaking when I move her. (I've had that happen with ALL my broodies when moved). But I'll sell one or both of them because while they're nice enough they don't excite me.

I'm probably culling the Langshan, who lays cute purple-pink eggs but who has been VERY prone to rooster wear.

The Lavender Orpington x Silver-Laced Wyandotte girls should go too. They're great layers of attractive, pink eggs but I wasn't impressed with their temperament. I *might* keep the best of them since they were a gift from a friend.

There are also some of this year's chicks who need to go.

I've got a Black Australorp pullet just starting to lay who is rather nice. I want to focus on Blue, but since I want to keep a Splash male when I hatch one I probably should intentionally keep a couple black females.

I'm keeping the California White's daughter even if I do cull the mother. She's a gorgeous DEEP black and should lay really well.

I should get good photos of all the POL girls so as to better evaluate them and get some feedback.

 

[Mrs. K]

selling laying hens should be easy. This part of chicken math is hard, but so very important this time of year.

 

[RiverOtter]

I cull roosters pretty hard - and in my case, cull doesn't mean kill, there's a good market here for handsome roos. I put them in a nice crate with some straw and folks at the local sale barn snap them up. It's a way better cost/benefit than the crock-pot. I mention it because a lot of people forget that cull means "remove from this breeding program" and there are a lot of ways to do that.

Nature culls most of my hens. I keep them when they molt, because longevity and predator savvy is important to me - everyone's situation is unique. However, I do take nature's hints. When a hen's molt lasts 2 months or more, when her laying slows or stops, these are usually signs that she's having a health issue and I hurry nature along, which I feel is a kindness. They are not generally long-lived critters, so some hens, this happens at a year, but I had one old girl still laying 5 eggs a week at the incredible age of 7 before she was nabbed by a fisher cat.

The plus to this for me is that when I hatch out eggs, it is from proven hens. Regardless of breed, these are hens that forage well, are wary of predators, molt in 6 weeks or less and lay well year round.

Is it all new genetics? No, but if certain traits are important to me, I can separate out a few hens that meet those specific criteria and have passed all the other tests, pen them for a few weeks with the rooster of my choice and hatch out my batch or two of eggs.

Because honestly I don't hatch out enough eggs to run my flock ENTIRELY around that. Breeding is a great goal, but for the number of chicks I raise (like, 10 at a time), I don't need my EVERY chicken to be a breeder. But I eat eggs almost every day, and I certainly feed my birds every day, I look at them all the time, so good layers that are easy on my feedbill, no freeloaders and a bird I find attractive will stay in my coop, if not in my breeding project.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Good luck with your musings! It's always a difficult decision which to cull. I'm not at all into a breeding program, other than lots of eggs and lots of meat. I don't give a hoot what breed they are (only requirement I have is a dual-purpose breed), but it's fun to see the different colors showing up in my chicks. I'm approaching a cull date, too, in about 2 weeks when I rotate the chicks and the next group of cockerels have timed out. Sigh. I choose based on overall health, age, evidence of egg-laying, and lastly - personality.

 

[Ridgerunner]

4. Age -- I won't progress my flock if I don't replace the older birds with the next generation.

I haven't really considered how much I do or don't care about longevity.

Not easy is it? To get what you want you need to know what you want. So you list out your goals. Excellent start. But your goals can change, mine did. Or something happens. "That hen went broody so she stays even if she is not what I want!" The more goals you have or the more traits you are breeding for the harder it is. Sometimes you have to choose one that fails certain traits because they have other traits you want. Some may be counter. You want to progress your flock but if one of your goals is longevity you have to wait years before you decide which chickens can breed.

I'm not going to offer any suggestions; your flock, your goals, your choices. I will offer sympathy, I know it can be hard. Maybe another case where romance meets reality, you can only do so much.

 

[3KillerBs]

To get what you want you need to know what you want. So you list out your goals. Excellent start. But your goals can change, mine did

Yes, mine already have changed. I started out with the intent to have a diverse flock.

I'm not going to offer any suggestions; your flock, your goals, your choices. I will offer sympathy, I know it can be hard. Maybe another case where romance meets reality, you can only do so much.

I appreciate the sentiment.

Sometimes for me just "talking out loud" helps solidify things.

 

[3KillerBs]

Except for the cripple, the crossbeak and other future chicks with like problems, every bird I cull will get it's chance on Craigslist before he/she goes into the freezer.

 

[3KillerBs]

selling laying hens should be easy. This part of chicken math is hard, but so very important this time of year.

Selling excess POL pullets should be easy enough.

Not sure about selling year-old and 2yo girls going into molt. I will be honest about their age, status, and what to expect.

Seen too many people here tricked into getting old hens that never did lay well.

 

[3KillerBs]

So, thinking over my criteria,

1. Health/Vigor -- IMO, everything else has to be subordinated to vigorous good health.

2. Physical Perfection -- Lack of defects and adhering to type as closely as possible. Not sure if age factors into this.

3. Egg-Laying performance (when known) -- This is harder because, with few exceptions, I can't tell which hens lay which eggs and I don't have trap nests or the ability to sit there all day to record eggs. But, even so, I expect to improve this simply because when I choose which eggs to hatch I eliminate all oddballs and aim for eggs that match my preference of L or XL with perfect shape and cleanliness.

4. Age -- I won't progress my flock if I don't replace the older birds with the next generation.

5. Personality -- though I don't currently have any flock troublemakers.

 

[NatJ]

So, thinking over my criteria,
4. Age -- I won't progress my flock if I don't replace the older birds with the next generation.

Agree, except:
--it's only true if the next generation are better than the older birds. Otherwise, you could make "progress" in the wrong direction.

--if you want to breed for longevity, then you should keep each bird just as long as it continues to perform well. That way you'll end up hatching the most chicks from the ones that perform well for the most years. (Whether you care about longevity is up to you. I'm only commenting about what to do IF you care.)