How do you know when it is the right time to cull a chicken from your flock? Culling a chicken is a hard decision for many modern homesteaders. We are able to be more flexible, in many cases, because the chickens we raise are often a cross between pets and livestock. Even so, there are situations when raising chickens, when we have to answer the question, is this the right time to cull a chicken? The following situations may occur on your homestead or in your flock and lead you to the point of decision making.
The Right Time to Cull a Chicken
Egg Eating
Egg eating in a production barn would almost surely be met with the decision to cull. After all is said and done, livestock is supposed to produce food. If the livestock is eating the produced food, it is counter productive to keeping it. Now I will tell you that I have never culled a chicken for behavior, egg eating or other. I try to work it out by gathering eggs more frequently or catching the culprit in the act.
If I catch the egg eater, quarantining in a crate for a couple of days, with food and water of course, often stops the behavior. Also, adding free choice calcium to the coop helps. If my calcium feeder remains empty too many days, I can have a hen lay soft shelled eggs. These are easily broken by the egg eater, making it even more likely the chickens will try and eat the good eggs too.
Aggression
Aggression can take the joy out of chicken keeping. If you have to continually watch your back while feeding and tending to the chicken’s needs, it wears you down. Roosters commonly disrupt the care of the flock by over protecting the hens. Try to train your roosters to look at you as the Flock Boss. They should move out of your way as you move about the coop or run. Sometimes keeping an aggressive rooster is just not possible. You may be ok with his antics but if you have small children, the danger is greatly increased and totally unacceptable.
Hens can be nasty at times too. In a flock without a rooster, one of the hens will often assume the roll of protector and behave like a rooster. Even with no spurs, being attacked by a chicken can be startling and painful. You may want to assess if it is the right time to cull a chicken.
Non-Laying Hen
Older hens often slow in egg production until they cease to lay altogether. At some point the hen becomes a fancy, well fed, bug hunter for your yard. In our case, I am happy to let the older hens live out their days, enjoying life on the farm. I think they add to the flock’s character. But then again, I am crazy about my chickens. In some situations you are limited on the number of chickens you can keep. Having your aging flock take up the space that could be used for younger producing hens may not be the best idea. This may lead you to think about the right time to cull a chicken.
Is Having a Chronic Illness or Injuries the Right Time To Cull a Chicken?
Even well kept backyard chickens can become ill. If she doesn’t die from the illness, the hen may not lay again. Once again, you are keeping a pet chicken at this point. This is a situation I faced recently. We had a chicken that was partially paralyzed. I treated her for over two weeks, exercising her, holding her, making sure she could reach food and water.
Ginger tried to recover. She did really well and made progress. Then she took a giant step backwards. The light left her eyes. Her comb became pale and discolored. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open because she felt bad and was probably in pain. I had to make a difficult decision. Chickens are commonly attacked by predators, too. You may find your hen near death and suffering. Sometimes the right time to cull a chicken decision is made for us, and we need to end the suffering. Each person has to make this after assessing the individual demands and drawbacks of keeping the hen alive.
Bad Genetics
Some chickens are hatched weaker than the rest of the flock. Bad genetic combinations can lead to conformation issues in the chicken’s body, beak, legs, and feet, that keep it from living a normal chicken life. Some conditions, such as prolapsed vent occur and keep occurring. Hens that repeatedly suffer from reproductive tract troubles such as prolapse and egg binding may be suffering from an infection. In small chicks, spraddle leg can often be corrected if discovered early enough. In cases where treatment of bracing the legs does not work, the chick may need to be culled. Cross beak or scissor beak can be trimmed but may eventually lead to the chicken not being able to eat enough food to stay alive.
- spraddle leg
- cross beak
- egg bound
- prolapsed vent
The chicken is a Rooster
Finally, one of the things we have little control over is ending up with a rooster when we ordered all pullets from the breeder or hatchery. There is no 100% guarantee on sexing day old chicks. When your community or city has a strict “No Rooster” policy, you must get rid of the rooster. Some places will try to re-home a healthy rooster, especially if it is a rare or popular breed. In many cases the rooster ends up as meat for the family.
Being able to make the ultimate decision when the right time to cull a chicken comes along is part of the responsibility of raising backyard chickens. Ending the suffering of your hen or using the other purpose for the surprise rooster is humane. Homesteaders and farmers have been carrying out this process for years. It won’t be easy but the end of life decisions should be thought about before you start keeping chickens.
Making end of life decisions for our livestock and poultry is never easy. The subject is a sensitive one in today’s modern homesteader world. If you have positive comments, encouraging words or courteous disagreement, I invite you to leave a comment in the comments section.
I recently had to euthanize my favorite, ill 5 year old Golden Comet hen. I just could not do it myself and paid $60 to a vet to do it for me. Ouch! This is not something I can afford on a regular basis. I would love to read a post about this – how do you do it and the most humane and safe method.
Hi Lynda This is a very difficult subject. If possible, find someone in your area who humanely dispatches their meat birds and learn from them. I don’t plan on writing step by step tutorial on the subject. It is a very difficult thing for me to do even as a long time farmer. I can do what I have to do to relieve suffering. There are many blog articles and you tube videos that you can find by searching the internet. Wishing you the best.
I hate this part of farming! We’ve had to cull 5 chickens in the past year and have tried various methods w/varying degrees of success. There is not a single vet near me who will euthanize a chicken so we’ve had to take matters into our own hands. We’ve found that the axe method is the best for us. I’m lucky to have a husband and teenage son to handle this unpleasant task for me.
Me also Stephanie. I am glad the men in my family will step in for me when the tears are flowing and I can’t see!
I had to cull one of my hens due to pro-lapse. I tried to help her but to no avail so my husband had to do the job for me. I said to him, “please make sure she doesn’t suffer and bury her next to our two dogs and he took her outback and did it quickly using an axe. He made sure it is very sharp so the blow is quick. So for the second time again I’m facing that dilemma one of my favorite hen is not looking good, she is slow and just doesn’t seem happy, always off by herself and producing soft eggs each time I check. I kept reasoning with myself that she can wait out her days till she drops over, but really she’s probably suffering in a way we can’t really feel. So again my husband says he’ll do it for me. I too am glad the men in my family will do the job for me when I don’t have the heart to do so.
That can be a very tricky problem and often it repeats. I am sorry for the loss
Beautiful. Positively perfect and well said. These are things we must consider prior to that first chick, and be prepared for, for every single chick, after that first one. Thank you. I’ll be sharing this!
share away! I am glad you liked the post and I will be glad to see the post shared. It’s a tough subject. But we have to deal with it
When we’ve had to cull birds I’ve always found it ‘easier’ (never actually easy… there are always a few tears) when it is my responsibility to catch, calm and hold the bird while my husband gives one quick swing of a sharp hatchet. By being the hands that hold the bird at the end of it’s life seems to give me closure since I feel like I’m nurturing it right until the end. Also, making sure we have a sharp, well maintained hatchet for this purpose only gives us peace of mind that we are causing minimal suffering.
Terri
Aww yes I understand It’s why I always insist on being by our dogs sides when they have to take that final journey. Thanks for commenting
It is never easy, and the hardest part is culling one that you have spent days nursing back to health. Normally my husband dies the dirty work, but I have had to cull one myself, and it tore me up. Processing for meat is completely different for me, not really sure why.
We all have our own ways of coping and thank goodness for husbands and family member who can fill in when we have a gap. thanks for commenting Ann
I had to cull my first bird today. My beginners flock of three is now two. She just got very sick very fast and I couldn’t let her suffer. I used the wringing method and it was effective but a little traumatic for me. I will Try a different method next time. I’m just praying the other girls don’t catch it.
I am sorry. I know how hard it is to take care of it yourself, too. My best method is to hand her off to my farmer son, who will do the deed for me but it still is sad I hope your other hens stay healthy
Just today I culled a rooster in my quarantine barn. Not because he was a rooster but because he had chronic respiratory disease. I had him for a week and he was getting worse. Although he was great boy to handle and gentle I had to cull him. I could have treated him but he would have had it would have cost me over $100 to do so and he would have it forever. I wouldn’t risk it spreading to other birds as he would have it for life, or allow him to pass it on genetically. As I keep roosters only for breeding not as pets as they don’t make me money and the type of farm I have. Everything on it is expected to make its keep. I have tons of people mad at me for my decision but I feel it was the right one.
Skye, you did what you felt was necessary. I had a chicken recently that was sick off and on for a few weeks. I had her inside the house in a pen (we are in the Northeast and have had really low temps and a few blizzards lately). It became apparent to me yesterday that she wasn’t doing well and most likely wouldn’t make it but I didn’t have the heart to cull her and I feel terrible because of that. She did pass away yesterday, but I feel like she was uncomfortable for quite awhile before she did. SO, don’t let anyone tell you how to care for your flock. They are yours and I think it is much more humane to cull them than to let them suffer needlessly. Plus, maybe other birds of yours wouldn’t have been able to recover if they caught it. You made the right decision.
My husband is more squimish than me, so I have to do it and don’t know if I can. Wish I knew some tough farm boys… One of our older hens has become the picked on one. I found her with blood on her comb as she flew up to my head to escape the bullying. I don’t know if this is a good reason to cull, but I don’t see her quality of life being very good living like this.
I understand. It’s a very tough decision to make
We had the same- only we rehomed the little lady to her own coop after she healed and she?s loving it. More work than expected but she produces eggs like crazy now and is super personable with us. Haven?t had other issues woth the roo and other ladies so far… but he?s on borrowed time if he steps out of line again!
I am facing having to cull two of my three in my very first flock. Unfortunately the two ended up being roos and the hen won’t lay. I’ve been told if she can get some peace she will, hence bye bye roos. I’m not sure about having only one hen though, won’t she get lonely? I don’t think I’ll be able to get her company till next chick season.
She might be ok alone, but you are right to think about this. I would keep my eyes open for someone in a similar situation that might have a solo hen looking for a good home. Farm supply stores often have bulletin boards for people to post notes