Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[JShubin]

I suspect you cull in you own way in a manner that in the end is at least as grievous as mine. Additionally your breeding practices are such that few people down the road will value your birds as much as you do. Think about how that impacts the long-term outlook of your lines.

Space is limiting. With linebreeding an individuals sole purpose is to be bred back to a parent and held as backup until offspring are ready to fill same role. I cull many more before they reach an age where I give an individual a go in the brood pen. I always also keep full-sibling backups for the event a first string breeder is lost. A bird used as a breeder is kept on until its own offspring produce offspring. That saved me a year a couple of years back.

The birds serve multiple purposes and those not deemed top of line are consumed early to reduce cost of operation overall, I do gift some occasionally but do not do so with birds that are not at least B-grade.

Second male bird above was culled at 3 years of age. Third will be held until his offspring produce offspring next spring. It is not practical to generate images of all, especially for simply showing here.

At this time these birds have value only to me and I have no interest in putting them out there for parties that are not fully vested in their upkeep.

I understand what your saying and it makes sense.

I keep several back-ups as well I just cant find it in my heart to kill them or eat them.

I have my own issues with culling which is why my wife hates me right now. I did find some good homes for some stags/cocks this year. There is enough people where I live that I can easily find homes for all my stags, I just tend to scrutinize buyers and do my best to sell to kind hearted people.

**** Disney movies... ruined me for life.

 

[JShubin]

My wife thinks I have animal hoarding issues, and she did research on it... Apparently "they" say one of the warning signs is being an active member on animal forums. lol

 

[centrarchid]

I understand what your saying and it makes sense.

I keep several back-ups as well I just cant find it in my heart to kill them or eat them. 

I have my own issues with culling which is why my wife hates me right now. I did find some good homes for some stags/cocks this year. There is enough people where I live that I can easily find homes for all my stags, I just tend to scrutinize buyers and do my best to sell to kind hearted people.

**** Disney movies... ruined me for life. 

J, for chickens in general, I do not know what kind hearted people are. The backyard approach where all birds are hatchery sourced do not make the cut as those birds are purchased solely as disposable entertainment. Games can have it tough as well but those that make a year often have a better life expectancy than any other breed even when actively "employed".

 

[JShubin]

Well I like to think of myself as a kind-hearted person towards chickens. And I have known several others that are kind as well, who treat their chickens like pets/children... in fact this forum is full of those people.

Even though many die in my care, I do my best to raise "happy" chickens (free range philosophy)... and the penned ones get great care similar to that of employed fowl. I try to find these people with similar priorities. I occasionally get pictures (via text mostly) from buyers who love to send me updates on stags/cocks that I sold to them.

We may not be the majority but there are a lot of people who view animals in that way. At some point in history dogs/cats/horses were probably treated how chickens are today, but now (for the most part) these animals are treated with care and compassion.

 

[narragansett1]

few of my Cuban birds some are molting these birds where all gifted to me note the red cock in the middle a+ on that bird and I'm relay liking the little gray just look at the dark hackle he is a rose comb...

 

[sdm111]

Gifting will work for general breeding but if your breeding just for stags of a certain cross than u got to cull whatever u don't want out of that breeding cause u wouldn't want your work to be out there for everybody else

 

[MaycanGamefowl]

Anybody here have any sweaters

 

[JShubin]

yea

 

[MaycanGamefowl]

[/IMG] young pumpkin pullet, racy mug pullet, and asil pullet

 

[MaycanGamefowl]

my racy mug and pumpkin pullets