Culling: when a bird is costing you money
A bird that will not reach target weight still eats. Deciding early is unpleasant, and it is cheaper than the alternative for the flock and kinder to the bird.
Awaiting veterinary review. This guide is written from published industry practice and has not yet been checked by our domain advisor. Confirm anything clinical with your own veterinarian before acting on it.
CullingRemoving birds that will not reach market weight. A bird that stops converting feed into weight is costing money every day it stays.Glossary → is the part of poultry management farmers avoid talking about, and the part that most reliably separates a well-run shed from a badly run one. The argument for it is not sentiment in either direction — it is arithmetic plus welfare, and they point the same way.
The arithmetic
A runt that will never reach market weight consumes feed for the whole cycle. In a broiler flock, feed is roughly two-thirds of the cost of production. A bird carried to day 35 that sells for a fraction of a normal bird — or does not sell at all — has eaten a full bird’s feed.
There is a second cost that is larger and less visible. A sick or badly compromised bird is shedding pathogen into the shed for as long as it lives. It is not merely unproductive; it is a source.
And there is a third: birds that cannot compete at the feeder do not simply grow slowly. They damage flock uniformity, which is what the buyer actually prices.
Deciding, by age
First 7 days. Cull unhealed navels, obvious deformities, birds unable to stand or reach water. Day-old culling is the cheapest culling there is — the bird has eaten almost nothing. This is also where poor chick quality shows.
Why chick quality shows up in day-7 weight →
Weeks 2–3. Walk the shed daily and look for birds that are visibly behind, not eating, or unable to move to feed and water. A bird that cannot reach the feeder will not recover by being left there.
Weeks 4+. Leg problems, lameness that prevents the bird reaching feed and water, and birds that have clearly stopped growing. Late culls are less attractive financially — the feed is already spent — but the pathogen and welfare arguments still hold.
What to look for on a walk
- Cannot stand, or cannot walk to feed and water
- Visibly much smaller than its age-mates
- Not eating, empty crop at a time when others are full
- Obvious injury, or a wound others are pecking
- Severe respiratory distress
- Any bird that is clearly suffering with no realistic recovery
Walk the shed properly every day. Standing at the door does not find these birds. The walk is the management; the culling is just the outcome.
Doing it humanely
If a bird is to be culled, it must be killed quickly and competently by someone trained to do it. A badly done cull is worse than no cull.
This is not a task to learn from a website. Have your veterinarian or an experienced hand show the correct method in person, and make sure whoever is on the shed at night knows it too — a bird found suffering at 11pm should not wait until morning.
Never sell or slaughter for food a bird that was culled for sickness, and never one inside a withdrawal period.
Record it
Culls are not mortality, and lumping them together destroys the information. A flock with 2% mortality and 4% culls has a very different problem from one with 6% mortality.
Record them separately, by day, with a reason. Over three or four cycles this tells you whether your problem is the hatchery, the brooding week, or the finishing phase — and that is a question worth answering.
Layers
In a laying flock the question is different: a hen that has stopped laying but continues eating. Non-layers are identifiable by comb condition, pelvic bone spacing and vent appearance, and a flock at the end of its economic life is a scheduled decision rather than a daily one.