which hen to cull?

[patandchickens]

Opinions? Goal is to produce future poults to grow up for freezer. Have 3 year-old Beltsville Small Whites, reeeaaallly only want to keep/feed two. Choices:

#1 -- good looking, has strutted occasionally since removal of tom to freezer camp last month, good and big and meaty-lookin', but lays eggs that are totally white (no speckles) with LARGE protruding patches of calcium deposits, dunno what that means.

#2 -- reasonably big and meaty-looking, suffered fairly severe injury from tom's spurs about 6 weeks ago which seems to be healing basically ok but she still limps and walks carefully

#3 -- somewhat small and scrawny.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[kuntrygirl]

I would decide which one is the weakest link and cull.

 

[patandchickens]

sorry bout that, I hit enter a coupla times too many before I got any further than typing "opinions?" Is fixed now, see above

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well yes, what I was hoping for was opinions on which is the worst problem -- funky eggs, history of bad injury (obviously not genetically transmissible, but I don't wind up with a hen not permanently-well-enough to breed well), or small/scrawny.

Pat

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[patandchickens]

OK, so it's probably #3 for the axe (I want to take one more look at #2's wound -- it was not just a cut, it was removal of probably a size-of-my-whole-hand area of not just skin but also muscle on one upper leg, really gross)

That's a good point about tracking weight gain in this year's (yet to be hatched) poults - I will try to remember to do that!

Thanks Steve,

Pat

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[Arielle]

Your example is a really good one! THere is no perfect anything--we have to make a choice from the animals we have.

Injured hen--years ago a mare bit a chunk from the hip of a foal. With great care over a very long time (6 months) the muscle did grow back in and the skin grew and closed over the wound. Nature makes a huge effort to heal such things. ANd since your hen isn't destined for the race tracks like the foal, she may heal up well enough to continue as a breeding hen.

PS--she may limp for a long time; see what she is like in a year. Yes, really, a year. I'm speaking from personal experience.

GL