How to you say good-bye to an old friend? Look at these sweethearts! How am I supposed to play Solomon and decide who stays and who goes? Culling out for winter is one of the toughest jobs I have as a homesteader, but it’s a necessary duty I must shoulder if I am going to keep my flocks profitable.
Here we are getting ready to go to a swap meet where many of the girls and Silas, the juvenile rooster, found a good home. Culling out does not necessarily mean butchering. My 18-month-old hens sell for a good sum and I always come away from a swap meet happy to have met more amazing homesteaders and farmers. I love listening to these men and women who have so much homespun wisdom to impart if given half a chance. I had never been to this swap meet but they all went out of their way to make me feel welcome.
Even after the sale, I still must cull out 10 more birds. How to make those choices? I will steel my heart and get to it. One tip when making this tough decision is to just sit and watch the girls interact. Who’s aggressive? Is the hen at the bottom of the pecking order suffering? Who is taking a long time to molt? I go into the coop at dusk and watch how they are interacting as temperament means more in the middle of winter when the girls tend to get crabby and might start pecking on each other.
I also pick up each hen and check to see if they are good layers. Three or four fingers should fit between the bottom of the keel bone to vent if a hen is laying well. I “pinch an inch” to check if each hen is too fat, as fat hens make poor layers. Now a normal fat layer is developing in fall to see them through winter but you can tell when you examine a hen if she is overweight.
Part of the pleasure of raising any poultry is developing that connection with the birds but reducing the flock can and must be done unless you can afford to keep them as pets.
Buchheit’s still has chicks in stock to brood before winter. It’s really a great time to brood as they will grow all winter and be at “point of lay” ready to produce eggs in spring. Talk of new chicks in not contradictory to culling out stock as fresh birds must be in play to keep the egg production going. Good flock management is whatever works for you. Hope this was helpful. Leave me a question in the comment box and I will right back to you. Have a productive, happy day! Anne May
