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.
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.