Author Topic: Chick selection culling & criteria  (Read 3040 times)

Brittany Hutchings

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Chick selection culling & criteria
« on: March 28, 2020, 01:41:57 PM »
Good morning everyone,

I'd love to hear your perspective on a few breeding questions:

  • What are your criteria for newly hatched chicks to decide who to keep for your breeding program?
  • What are the ages that you usually reassess birds as they grow? And what characteristics do you look for at those ages?


I'm interested in the characteristics that make good type and conformation for Ameraucanas and characteristics that make good colours for Blacks, Blues, and Splashes.

Birdcrazy

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Re: Chick selection culling & criteria
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2020, 03:30:12 PM »
Brittany, I hope you have some great hatches underway! I have my first hatch in the incubators as we speak. Some of the things to watch in young chicks are leg color and absence of muff and beards. Any yellowish or greenish yellow leg colored chicks need to go. Wheaten and Blue Wheaten chicks should have flesh colored legs when hatched and they will eventually change to a nice slate color in adult age. Signs of no muffs and beards on chicks that are growing out are gone in my program. Breeding Blacks, as the chicks grow out I cull any that show a purplish feather sheen compared to a greenish feather sheen. Straight black with no sign of a developing sheen are kept and watched upon further grow out. As the birds continue to grow out, I watch the combs, extremely large and or floppy combed birds are culled. These are some of my main concerns on newly hatched to mid grow out stage. I do not cull for conformation at this stage unless you find a definite problem (Wry Tail, etc,) I normally try to separate cockerels and pullets at 3-4 months of age. I try to keep numbers down in the cockerel pens unless they have a large run and nesting area. I keep them on a high protein feed, I like Purina Flock Raiser. Now is the time to just sit and watch them grow out. Start comparing them tp the Standard of Perfection and keep watching for your best prospects. This is usually when you start remarking "I wish that I could put that tail on this other bird, or wow if that comb was on that other bird, or I sure like the way this bird carries himself, but does not have the eye color of some of the other prospects. At this point, I try to keep about 6 cockerel prospects and 12 or so pullets. I usually keep these until at least 10 months of age until I keep my final choices. I learned the hard way by only keeping 1 new cockerel. Predators and our severe winters can cull your best breeder prospects. Predators always seem to go after the cream of the crop and winter weather seems to go after your older breeders. I don't usually have the same concerns with hens due to the larger numbers in my flock. I hope some of this may help. I'm sure there are other ABC members out there with other suggestions, and will chime in with their ideas. I could always use new ideas, even at my age. That's what is great about the ABC Forum. All of us ABC members coming together helping each other out and furthering the advancement of the breed!
Gordon Gilliam

Lindsay Helton

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Re: Chick selection culling & criteria
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2020, 08:18:43 PM »
Good morning everyone,

I'd love to hear your perspective on a few breeding questions:

  • What are your criteria for newly hatched chicks to decide who to keep for your breeding program?
  • What are the ages that you usually reassess birds as they grow? And what characteristics do you look for at those ages?



I'm interested in the characteristics that make good type and conformation for Ameraucanas and characteristics that make good colours for Blacks, Blues, and Splashes.

Do you own an American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection book? That is a great book to own if you are interested in breeding birds towards the standard. It also goes into detail on defects and disqualifications.

I select for good muffs/beard (Mb) expression, wide heads and good vigor in day olds.

Ameraucanas are a very slow to develop breed. Most large fowl cockerels do not finish out until around 11 months of age. I cull for any disqualifications but otherwise try to keep the birds around long enough to give them time to develop. With time, you will become more and more familiar with the line you are working with and will start to pick up on some attributes of the keepers and culls earlier on. What one breeder may consider a keeper in their flock may be considered a cull in another flock. If the quality is good generally speaking, it is good to start where you are with what you have and to make improvements from year to year. It is rewarding to maintain and improve them. Type is always first. That basically means that you have to build the barm before you paint it. Good heads are really important to me personally. That eludes to good general head width, a tight pea comb, Mb/Mb expression, a beak that is well centered and so forth. Tail angles can always go up but never come down. You can select away from juveniles with really high tail angles as they will only get worse as the tail fills in. Having a copy of the standard in hand to use when assessing birds is really helpful. For instance, you would read that the standard calls for eye color to be reddish bay. Eye color will typically transition with time in juveniles. It is important to remember that the standard was written for mature birds, not for day olds. At the end of the season, cull down to the best and get rid of the rest. :) You can make more improvements from year to year keeping a few of the very best pairs or trios vs larger pens of lesser quality birds. It also saves you some money on feed!  If you can post side profile photographs of your birds taken down on their level, I am sure members would be happy to help you critique them. Good luck with your blue, black and splash!
« Last Edit: March 28, 2020, 08:34:30 PM by Lindsay Helton »
Joshua 24:15

Brittany Hutchings

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Re: Chick selection culling & criteria
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2020, 10:05:10 PM »
Hi Gordon and Lindsay, those are some very good tips. I do own the SOP but as you said, it's meant for mature birds. It's interesting to hear your perspectives on traits to watch for in chicks because that's something that only comes with lots of experience. For example, I've never thought to look for head width in the chicks. These will be some useful ideas to keep in mind while I'm watching this year's chicks grow - thanks for your advice!