Breeding and Culling to the Standard
Culling
Dr Charles R H Everett
This article is from the S.P.P.A. Newsletter by Dr. Charles R H Evereet, the Secretary of the Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (the American equivalent or our Rare Poultry Society).
My good friend Monte Bowen from Plevna, Kansas is always stressing the need to “breed to the Standard”. Of course, this is absolutely the case. When making up breeding pens you should never pair birds with similar faults. The basic rule of thumb is to breed best to best. However, in order to adequately “breed to the Standard” the breeder should begin with culling to the Standard.
Culling to the Standard uses the technique put forth more that 50 years ago by long time breeder Ralph Sturgon, who said, “Start where you are with what you have”. The technique is simple to follow, but takes time and patience. Here are the basic guidelines to keep in mind when culling.
Never cull too early. The Standard was written with mature birds in mind. Of course, you can cull for obvious faults early like duck-footed or cross beaked. But, keep in mind that a bird will molt several times before they receive their adult plumage.
Type comes before color. Type defines the breed; color defines the variety. Always build the barn before you paint it!
Just because a particular bird would not do well in a show it doesn’t mean they would not make an excellent breeder bird. However, be careful not to breed to birds with the same fault because if you do you will start to set that trait in your line.
There are actually several ways to cull. Of course, the most obvious is to kill that particular bird. However, if the bird is a pullet you might keep her for the eggs she lays but, never breed her. Another method is to giver or sell the cull birds to someone who is interested in having a few chickens around but hasno desire to show or breed them.
Learn the difference between ‘defect’ and ‘disqualification’. Birds with defects may be keepers particularly if you are dealing with birds that are difficult to come by; on the other hand, birds with disqualifications should never be used in the breeding pen.
Cull all birds with severe medical problems. You can build a strong strain by breeding from birds which are healthy and vigorous. If you medicate sick birds you are more thank likely breeding that weakness into your strain.
Cull all man fighters! Unfortunately, this selective pressure has largely been ignored in meat and egg breeders. Only cockers have consistently culled man fighters. Consequently, aggression toward people seldom appears in the Game breeds. Culling to the Standard will help you to more quickly get your stock up to the place where you would like to see them. You do the poultry fancy no favours by not culling. If you cannot cull, you need another hobby!