Culling!!!

Yesterday I completed the last of my vaccinating for ILT and whilst I was at it I pulled out all my pullets from my Black, white and Crele Old english Games. I love this time of year when you start to see what your breedings have produced for the year and as usual some good thing and things to be worked on.
In my Black pullets- I have been watching these girls develop and was getting somewhat excited so yesterday in the viewing pen they went. I am so pleased first because a couple of years ago I found as was getting some light eyes and have made it my mission to only use the best eye colored breeding birds I could but of course they had to have other qualities too. Out of 21 pullets I had 1 with a somewhat lighter eye. Hooray!! Also of the 21 pullets I culled 1 for a high tailset and the lighter eyed one. A wonderful group of pullets and I will go though them again and again for in the coming months, all are banded and some of my favorites have other special bands so it will be interesting to see who ends up staying in the long run.
In my whites there were 16 pullets and in the end I banded 10 with 6 in the bye bye barrel and I can perdict more will be joining them in the coming month or so. Problems include long backs and longer wings than I find acceptable. These are common problems in this color but though it may not seem like it I am making small strides each year. Despite having my Citation of Excellent in this color I am still striving to get them better. One of the issues is I know it's a male line so while I do sometimes get some really good females it can be hit and miss with the girls. Because you are working with white or black the type on these colors needs to be exceptional.
Anyway great fun looking at the young birds and always sad to have to cull but great to look at the ones that are left. I can hardly wait to see what else is in my growing out pens.
Also we have had the storm to beat all storms last night, what a show and for so long and rain oh my word. I though my Koi would not be in the pond this morning but all is well.

Heather

That sound exciting!

It was an amazing storm last night was it not! I just fed the horses and put the cornish x dudes to bed before it started pouring here!

I was panicking a little that the power would go out and my 24 eggs in the bator would be sad! Luck was on my side and no outages!

Beautiful day in the okanagan today!

Anne

We had a nasty storm too lots of lightening and rain.
Heather you should post some pictures I am sure I speak for all when I say we would love to see them.
I am going to have to cull soon, but it is so hard to know which to keep and which to say goodbye to.
I hope to come home from the seminar with enough knowledge to make perfect choices

I will try to take a picture or two as I work though them from now on. Nuthatch 333 the best way to work though them if you can is to set the birds up in a pen and sit and observe them. No matter what breed you have think type first and if you are nervous about it have your SOP handy to check things. I start by picking out the birds that look the best typed to me, I examine them in the hand looking for anything that I don,t want in my breeding program or any disqualifing faults such as side sprigs any bird with DQ's are immed. dispatched. I have other pens to sort into in one pen my best go another pen are really good but maybe have slight faults that will not work in my breeding pen but perhaps in someone elses, little things like length of back, spread of tail, maybe the head is not as wide as I would like it, wing carrige but all the while keeping in mind that on another day it has to be good enough to remain in my barn if I want to offer it for sale.
and then I have others that don't make the grade for various reasons, tailset, maybe a white nail, when all the nails should be black, wing carriage very low and many other things that will differ from breed to breed. The more you get to know your breed the more confident, you will become and I think attending and competing and talking to other fanciers in shows is a must to better be able to pick desirable and undesirable traits. Other exhibitors may not currently have your particular breeds but many have had lots of different breeds over the years and yours may be one of them. The insite these people can offer new people in the hobby is invaluable to the learning process.
Always remember "what you tolerate in your barn is what you will have" and be fair to the people you are selling your birds to by not selling your culls only birds you might have kept yourself, on another day. The birds you sell should have something to offer the breed not be a deteriment and drag it down. Culling is hard but if you are to become a knowledgeable breeder it must be done to maintain the quality of any breed. Dosn,'t matter what you do with your culls but chicken and dumplings is always good.

Heather

Very exciting stuff! It must feel awesome to have so many good looking prospects in your youngin’s. I'm looking forward to the pics.

Nuthatch, I’m having the same issue with my Blue Ameraucana. Mine are only 6.5 weeks though, so still very young. Patience is probably key here. Sigh…

So at what ages do you guys typically cull your pens?

Bantams can be looked though earlier than L.F I patiently wait till all the feathers are fully in so I am looking at my Feb, March young birds and pullets will mature faster than cockerels. L.F I don't really look to much until the later fall for birds hatched January- Feb. but I am always looking in the pens to cull out birds I know are not going to cut the grade. As in my Leghorns which I know inside and out and how they develop, I go though the cockerels all the time reducing the numbers as all birds grow better with more space, so anyone male with a lopped comb goes etc. As you get to know how your birds develop it is easier to be able to pick out which ones can go at a younger age. When you have 17 cockerels and only plan to keep one or two and not enough females to make pairs, no point in feeding them as there is no meat on them.
So one must be patient and let them grow but if they are crowded and fighting that is no good, reduce the numbers as it will be for the betterment of them all.
It's always nice if you end up with something that is good but as with everything some breedings will bring disappointment, it happens to us all but you just pick the best you have and and hope for next year, which is where I am at with my white bantam game females this year, but my disapointment in not being able to keep as many as I would like will surely be tempered when I go though the boys from the same breedings and hopefully will find some treasures. That is the way of breeding.

Heather

Thanks for sharing your process Heather.

I have a few Amer I already know don’t make the grade. Another blue with a very, very slight crossed beak. He will have to be culled. Not sure why I havn’t done it yet, other than the fact he is perfectly healthy otherwise. And all of my blacks appear to have red leakage either in the chest or on the neck. Ah well, I’m not really as keen on the black as the blue anyhow. I do have a couple promising looking blues. Especially in temperament. These chickens are a real bunch of sweethearts. But yeah, I’m sure they could benefit from more space. Too bad the boys didn’t have more meat on their bones; it’d be so much easier to find a good use for them.

If I manage to get a few nice birds to work with, I’ll be a happy camper. And if not, I’ll happily try again. Digging for treasure wouldn’t be half as fun if it were easy!

I wanted to post here yesterday and didn`t have the time!
Heather I can feel the excitement in your post! Such a great time of year. I love sitting and deciding who is going to make the cut and who isn`t. You are very organised, I am not so much.
I wish I had more of my own birds to choose from this year. I am afraid I am just going to have to go with `what is left`for the most part. I like having lots to choose from but that is not the case this year.
I have decided I need 2 more pens, I am just not sure where I am going to get them from. I really want to try to winter the birds in the 2 bigger sheds I have this winter and them move them about in the spring. So I do have to pull my finger out and get culling even more. I have a few centimental birds that are not even breeds I am working with, that I have to try to fit in somewhere.
Unfortunately both of my `chosen` breeds are very slow to show their final colours and it will be a long process. sigh
Flicker Chick, keep an eye on your cockerels combs. I find that is a good way to really sort out the boys when all else is pretty equal. A really good pea comb is a nice thing to have and is genetially closely linked to the blue egg.
Heather, I look forward to seeing pictures of your birds. I am not very familiar with the breeds you are working with so it would be really great if you posted what you like about the birds you have kept. I find I learn so much looking at pictures and relating to the thoughts of people.
Thanks for the great thread.

By the way, we watched that storm blow in, up the valley, I think it started in Winfield, smiling that big smile. It was like a freight train hit us!!! My rain barrel, which was half empty is now full.

Heather, this is a most wonderful post, but scares the dickens out of me, smiling that big smile. You are so blessed to have that eye that has been trained for years to know what to look for, in the deep depths that you can do. Years and years of practice, my hat off to you, gal!!

I know that I am going to have to eventually get into culling some of the birds that are not making the cut, and such a novice with this, it is a difficult thing to do or understand what is what. But time, lots of time, and lots of mistakes I am sure, and lots of birds in the pot, smiling again, there will be a day, when I can look too at my birds, and judge them far more easily than I can now. Those things are such works in progress. Thanks for this post. You do indeed sounded excited about some of your nice bird prospects, good. Have a beautiful and wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Oh Guys poultry is my passion and obviously as you can see it takes very little to add excitment to my day. Cynthia you know when the time comes I will be most happy to help you, just drop me a line. Everyone starts somewhere but remember when culling pick your battles you are not going to fix everything in a generation. Always type above all else and then start looking at the little things,be it eye color leg color tail sets wing carriage. I could go on and on and the battles change from year to year. So chin up everyone do the best you can and don't rush your picks if possible as the cream birds usually rise to the top and show themselves. I am sure that I make mistakes from time to time mostly while going though a group a bit too soon to get the numbers down but it is worth the risk to give those cockerels more room, this is not such a problem with the girls as they are easier to condition and get along better( Gotta love those little girls).

Heather

thanks Heather. It's posts like these that help us newbies learn. I need to get something set up where I can more easily view them. Please keep these kind of post coming.
Duane

Great topic, something a lot of us are working on right now I think...

I was happy to find an article about "creating your own strain" specific to one of the breeds I am working with (Dominiques).
It gives a step by step (5 year) approach to develop your own strain.

It starts with breeding exhibiton type males to production quality hens and going from there. (Assuming this is all you have available)
The first year I think you are only supposed to keep three pullets to mate back to the original cock and then by the final year you have pullets you mate to a cock bird and hens that you mate to a young cockerel.

It is very interesting and makes a "simple" recipe just choosing one trait to work on each year.
I am very much still at the beginning stage so am supposed to be selecting my cockerel with the best downward sloping back this year for next year's breeding.
It helped me because at first I was just beating my head against the wall trying to pick out the "perfect" birds to keep and I didn't have any of those at all!

I will try to post a link to it here but right now the site keeps crashing on me so can't do it now.
Irene

Thanks for the tip Coopslave. A really nice pea comb is a rare treasure indeed.

Right now I have my eye on three very similar looking boys; two with small tight combs, one with a bit larger comb than I’d like, but showing good type so far. I may end up wintering more males than I first thought just to see how they mature out. (Rise my pretties! )

And you are so right about picking your battles Heather. My short-term goals are to acquire the best possible foundation stock I can while reading/learning everything I can about chicken genetics/breeding. My long-term goal is to achieve the best SOP birds I can without sacrificing egg colour, size and production.

Baby steps. Rome wasn’t built in a day after all.



Miry: That sounds really neat. I look forward to the link to check out.

Thanks Heather for all the great info on culling. I have been doing it slowly for the really obvious type faults. With my Lights, it is very discouraging because out of 11 cockerels I can only see one that I want to keep for type. Colour is another thing altogether. I just keep repeating type, type, type....... My Speckled are still too young. It will be October before I know anything.I'm still watching though. I'm looking for type and size there as well. Colour can come later.

Great comments from everyone. Can't wait to see that article Coopslave.

Heather, you know I will lean on you, when that time comes . These are the buff orpington, large fowl breed. I have one cockerel and 9 pullets from the Ontario lines that I hatched out. There are two distinctive looks here, pullets with large combs and pullets with small, almost invisible combs, go figure that!! The cockerel is the son of the one that good the grand champion prize at shows, so I am hoping he takes after his pappa. I think solid coloured birds are much easier to chose good from bad, as opposed to others that involve, lacing, shades, etc. Anyways, great post here!! Have a wonderful and great day.

Right, Heather, at what age in the buff orpington breed would one really begin to look at who is who in the zoo?

Cynthia lets have a look at them at the end of Sept. and at least start getting the worse on out if there are any, we will then band the good ones and the ones worth watching. Having only one cockerel, makes that part easy and at least with only girls there is no great rush and they can put on some maturity, so call me. The pjoject I was working on for you did not come to fruitation after 3 failed tries. but will continue moving forward on it.

Heather

Heather, alrighty then, the end of September, and boy that isn't far away, we will still have some reasonably warm weather to stand and gawk at birds, smiling. Darn, that project just doesn't sound like it wants to come to pass, but I know your persistence , I am a patient woman, and know full well that all good things do indeed take time -- wonderful and beautiful days, CynthiaM.