To kill or sell, what are your thoughts?? (Discussion about culling)

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Hatcheries hard cull most of the day old roos. Most young birds never make it to adulthood in the wild. It's a cruel world we live in.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Loving the replies on here, thank you all. A lot of my concerns have been brought up here, and I'm so glad to hear (err, read) that I am not alone in my concerns.

Selling off my bad roosters seems like a terrible idea to me for a lot of the reasons some of you have mentioned. When I have my good quality stock for sale in the future, I do not want anyone to be able to say "Well, she sold me some crap birds 6 months ago." Telling people something is pet quality and NOT true to standard is one thing, having them actually grasp the meaning of that is another.

I think I am going to eat my roosters, sorry boys. Hens I could never eat though, so they go in my personal flock for eggs or sold to someone I know can understand the meaning of pet quality. Of course not everyone is going to want to breed, a lot of people just want some hens. My main concern is when raising a rare or highly desired breed, any culls I sell may end up being bred and sold due to their value, even if the birds are not true to the breed. Such as with Marans, they are the "it" breed right now and any culls I might have with my wheatens, I would not want to sell them in case they are being used to breed. What if someone cannot find a good quality roo so they buy a PQ roo and breed their decent hens to him? I worry about this kind of thing. It was a lot easier when I just had a mixed flock running around lol.

Thanks so much for everyones replies.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I haven't gotten to this point yet with my chickens, but one of the reasons I look forward to seriously breeding and working towards conservation in heritage breed chickens is that to me, it's not an issue compared to other species I have worked with. The culled pullets/hens will be sold as layers or kept for my own layer flock, and the cockerels will be eaten, if not by me by someone else. Period.

With the rabbits, I pretty much just eat the culls, or sell the meat for pet food. It's terrible to have your name attached to inferior stock, and also...why flood the market if you're working in rarer breeds like I am? I'd rather be highly selective and develop a name and a reputation on quality and sell a few very good, high dollar specimens per year than saturate the market with cheap throw-aways so that I can't get more than a few bucks for even my GOOD stock that I need to sell.

In other species where you have to carefully screen pet homes for your culls, and even then have the risk of having that animal coming back to you for any number of reasons, it's even MORE of a pain in the butt. That's why I no longer breed anything I can't eat.

 

[V Comb]

The breeder I got my silkies from keeps the boys until they are 3 months old. They get to roam his wonderful (it is so beautiful) garden until 3 months. Then he sends the extra boys to his mate from a Vietnamese restaurant and a snake breeder, so they are not going to waste. If he has some good quality ones, he will give them to the feed store, or sell, but we can tell he doesnt want others to breed silkies so he doesnt sell the boys commonly.

Good luck, on your decision

 

[blackred]

Quote:
While this is a noble thought it is not so practical nor is it common. Most of the Master Breeders that I know, and I am talking about the Exhibition Poultry world here, will sell all the culls they can to what they call Chicken Jockeys ( or perhaps some other regional name) for about $5 a piece just to get them off the feed bill, create more room and make some feed money.

These chicken sellers then take them to the flea markets and other places and sell them for much more. The birds that you sell are always in top condition ( because how else can you tell if it is a cull) and healthy and mostly have faults that only an experienced breeder will recognize. They go fast for this reason, compared to the other trash people are selling these birds look beautiful. They never use somebody's name to sell the birds because the buyers haven't a clue who they are anyway. The birds sell themselves.

Think of it this way- I hatched 500+ bantams - I start culling at about 3-4 months. I have about 50- 100 birds to get rid of because of reasons I have described. That's $250- $500 dollars that will go a long way towards helping to feed the other 400 birds till I am ready to cull some of them. Keep in mind that at $5 a bird that wont even pay for the feed to get that bird to 4 months so they are not making money, just cutting their loses.
For Large Fowl I would say eat as many roosters that you can - sell all the pullets for the going rate. At the same time don't be afraid to knock some of the males in the head, if you have too many. I also give away a lot of roosters to the laborers at work for them to butcher. Anything to help get them off the feed bill and free up space.


Bob

 

[lildinkem]

I personally hate killing anything. BUT, for the better of the breeds we choose to raise I don't sell my culls for the most part. My belief is, IF there genetically something lacking, and to keep these bad trait birds out of the hands of people who care not about maintaining a standard, I take them to the sledge-a-matic. I never miss with a hammer head that size. It is instantaneous. For people who raise to a standard it is part of life or in this case death.
NOW I will let go my birds, go to people who share my belief in raising to a standard, for next to nothing, or nothing, that I think are good, but I have better to replace them. This is a time when you can take them to a show and rent a sales cage for a buck or two and see what you can get.
Now some of the verieties I have, and how hard it is to get the lines of those breeders I have birds from, my theory is "Nothing leaves alive". IF you show competatively, you do not want the competition getting your lines.