What does Cull mean?

[3KillerBs]

I agree with the majority above.

When I cull, I remove birds from my flock. Some are sold. Some who don't sell are eaten.

My rooster who has developed an attitude problem was going to be culled at 2 years old by being sold with a couple hens as a breeding group but since he's gotten aggressive he'll end up in the crockpot instead.

 

[Ridgerunner]

cull​

1 of 2

verb​

ˈkəl

culled; culling; culls
Synonyms of cull
transitive verb
1
: to select from a group : CHOOSE
culled the best passages from the poet's work
Damaged fruits are culled before the produce is shipped.
2
: to reduce or control the size of (something, such as a herd) by removal (as by hunting or slaughter) of especially weak or sick individuals
The town issued hunting licenses in order to cull the deer population.
culling a herd of cattle
also : to hunt or kill (individuals) for culling
culling diseased cows
culled hundreds of deer
culler noun
cull
2 of 2

noun​

: something rejected especially as being inferior or worthless
… how to separate good-looking pecans from culls.—The Washington Post

From the Webster dictionary.

I hate when terms have multiple meanings, or when people arbitrarily change meanings...

You get that a lot on this forum and in life in general. Words and terms can have multiple meanings. I found out decades ago that if you can get two arguing people to actually understand what the other person means by what they are saying most arguments go away. I also learned that most people don't want to learn what the other person actually means.

When I see the word "cull" on this forum I don't know if they mean kill or select. I can't change that so I don't worry about it.

 

[Badchickenpun]

Thanks for all that, my peeps!
Words are so hard these days. Some have such diverse meanings.
I was confused the other day, because a person was asking the pros and cons of no-till vs standard gardening. Virtually everyone was singing the praises of no-till, saying the same things over and over. I offered a con/ the pro of standard tilling. Got into a good discussion, and found out that some people think "no-till" gardening is just diggin a hole in the ground an covering with mulch... literally anything where you do not use a tiller.
I told them, that when researching "no-till" you get a in-depth tutorial about building up a layer of organic material on top of the ground... I do not have enough time, or organic material to cover a 30x100 plot with 6-12 inches of organic, rich mulch to grow my vegetables. I would need to spend 2-3 years of just getting the ground ready before I could even plant my first veggie.
My point is that, people were urging the OP to "no-till" and not every person had the same definition in their minds as they were discussing.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks for all that, my peeps!
Words are so hard these days. Some have such diverse meanings.
I was confused the other day, because a person was asking the pros and cons of no-till vs standard gardening. Virtually everyone was singing the praises of no-till, saying the same things over and over. I offered a con/ the pro of standard tilling. Got into a good discussion, and found out that some people think "no-till" gardening is just diggin a hole in the ground an covering with mulch... literally anything where you do not use a tiller.
I told them, that when researching "no-till" you get a in-depth tutorial about building up a layer of organic material on top of the ground... I do not have enough time, or organic material to cover a 30x100 plot with 6-12 inches of organic, rich mulch to grow my vegetables. I would need to spend 2-3 years of just getting the ground ready before I could even plant my first veggie.
My point is that, people were urging the OP to "no-till" and not every person had the same definition in their minds as they were discussing.

And when I think "no till" I think of the commercial farm practice developed for erosion control where the field is sprayed with Round Up to kill the weeds then seeded without plowing.

(I'm old enough to remember when this was the cutting edge of environmental consciousness because farmland erosion was The Big Scare!)

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Cull for me has one meaning, dead bird. I'm not heartless just a realist. I don't waste time on a mean rooster or deformed sick bird.

 

[sdm111]

To kill to me

 

[Ridgerunner]

Cull for me has one meaning, dead bird. I'm not heartless just a realist. I don't waste time on a mean rooster or deformed sick bird.

To kill to me

I get that and you are not alone. But that's why I try to avoid the word "cull". If a word has different meanings to different people then to me it has no meaning useful in general conversation. All it does is confuse. If I mean kill I try to say kill. If I mean give away or sell I try to say give away or sell.

 

[3KillerBs]

Cull for me has one meaning, dead bird. I'm not heartless just a realist. I don't waste time on a mean rooster or deformed sick bird.

In those cases, culling is certainly killing.

But when I culled my flock last fall to make room for the younger birds and to focus on the Australorps instead of the other breeds, I sold the healthy, well-behaved birds.

After all, a year or even 2yo laying hen is worth more on Craigslist than a chicken dinner.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

In those cases, culling is certainly killing.

But when I culled my flock last fall to make room for the younger birds and to focus on the Australorps instead of the other breeds, I sold the healthy, well-behaved birds.

After all, a year or even 2yo laying hen is worth more on Craigslist than a chicken dinner.

In the world today you have to soften kill with cull, no matter how you slice it killing is ugly business that sometimes has to be done. We would take our older healthy birds to auction.

 

[fluffycrow]

The thing is, culling isn't only killing. The meaning of cull is to remove a bird from the (breeding) flock. That encompasses  all types of removal, which icludes killing, but also includes separating, selling...etc