CHAPTER XV 

 CULLING 



Uoflnition — Beginners Too Anxious to Build up a Large Flock to 

 Realize Advantages of Culling — Culling Should be Carefully 

 Studied — Non-Producing Birds Should be Culled. 



Culling is the weeding out of specimens which the breeder 

 does not care to use and which, in his judgment, are not the 

 proper ones to breed from. 



To build up a flock of paying birds one must go slow, act 

 wisely and not be afraid to cull. No matter what the breed 

 nor \\hat the variety nor how high priced a pair of birds may 

 be they will, once in a \\'liile, throw youngsters that are not 

 exactly what we would care to breed from. We therefore elimi- 

 nate these specimens from our lofts and the best method of 

 getting rid of them is to kill them and not to pass them on to 

 some one else. 



Some beginners are so anxious to get a large number of 

 birds that they are apt to save every squab for a while and 

 later mate them up. In some cases it may be ^acII to save the 

 squabs, at least until the beginner learns how to cull them 

 before they leave the nest, but he should keep an over watchful 

 eye on the youngsters as they grow up and make up his mind 

 at once that nothing but the very best will do and as soon as 

 they are gro\\n he should be ready to save only specimens 

 which come close to standard requirements and discard all 

 others. However, the beginner sometimes cannot realize the 

 advantage of this system and saves every bird and soon his 

 stock is deteriorating instead of becoming better because of the 

 poorer specimens. Remember, we cannot expect every bird that 

 is liatched to be a good one, the poorer ones will happen along 



