Culling: The process of removing animals from a group based on specific criteria..... I'd never heard of that word until I started raising chickens, and in the 4 years I have had chickens it has never been an issue until now.
My first flock consisted of 10 hens. 5 were killed by predators, 2 died for unknown reasons, 2 are still healthy but not laying eggs, and 1 is on it's way out as we speak. My second flock of 27 which are less than a year old are all healthy, happy and laying eggs.
So here's the problem...I never had to worry about weeding out the inferior hens because it was pretty much taken care of nature's way. Now that I have 30 chickens it's not productive to have hens that don't lay. If I was a true farmer, I would have no problem culling the 2 old hens and the 1 sick hen. (Culling is just a softer way to say kill.) I can't bring myself to do it. I also have 2 roosters that are of no use except they are pretty and fun to watch. Most roosters are killed soon after they are hatched because they have no production value.
At first, my excuse for not getting rid of them was I couldn't find someone to do it for me. There are no commercial butchering companies locally that would butcher and dress the chickens. Now however; I have at least 2 people willing to do it for me but I can't bring myself to turn them over to them. My issue with this is seeing them as pets, not livestock. I wouldn't kill my dog just because he stopped fetching, so how can I kill my chickens for not laying eggs.
I can see it now.....3 years down the road I will have 100 chickens of which only 30 lay eggs; which means I have 70 pet chickens. I'm so pathetic. I'm really hoping nature will continue taking care of things for me. Like maybe lightening striking only the non laying chickens. That would be perfect.
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