June 16, 2025

Smart Selection-Part 1

Show Notes
Transcript

In this insightful episode of The Poultry Keepers Podcast, host Rip Stalvey is joined by Mandelyn Royal and John Gunterman to explore one of the most powerful yet misunderstood aspects of poultry breeding: Smart Selection.

Whether you're raising birds for eggs, meat, show, or heritage preservation, this conversation breaks down how purposeful culling and intentional selection can make or break your flock's future. Discover when and how to begin selecting birds, how to use records and daily observations to evaluate progress, and why even small decisions during brooding can have long-term impacts on flock quality.

From choosing which chicks to keep, to identifying hidden structural flaws, to weighing birds for growth tracking, this episode is packed with practical, proven strategies. If you're ready to move beyond maintenance and toward meaningful flock improvement, this is a must-listen.

#PoultryKeepersPodcast #PoultryKeepers360 #SmartSelection #BackyardChickens #HeritageBreeds #FlockImprovement #PoultryBreeding #ShowProFarmSupply #ChickenGenetics #PurposefulCulling #BetterBirdsBetterFlocks #FlockManagement

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Welcome back to the Poultry Keepers podcast.

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I'm Rip Stalvey, and today we're talking about smart selection, setting your flock with purpose and precision.

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John Gunterman and Mandelyn Royal and I will be diving deep into one of the most powerful and most.

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Often misunderstood tools flock selection.

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Now whether you're raising birds for eggs, meat, or show or simply to preserve a heritage line, how you thin your flock during grow out can make a, can make or break your progress.

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And this episode we'll talk about what to look for, when to start evaluating and how to use your own birds to make better decisions peer against peer.

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I.

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So grab a cup of coffee, maybe even a notepad, and let's dig in because we're ready to go.

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Mandelyn, John, good morning.

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Good to see you guys again.

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Good morning.

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Happy to be here.

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It is a fun day in Paradise today.

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I'm looking forward to this show.

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Oh yeah.

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Yep.

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It's it is probably one of the most misunderstood topics that people come across to be honest with you.

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And I really hope we're gonna simplify that and distill it down to make it the easiest topic to understand.

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Absolutely.

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I like to think of it as every time you feed your birds, it's a vote for your flock's future.

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And the question I always ask myself, who deserves my feed today?

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I always pause and reflect on the pen I'm feeding, or maybe I'm just swapping out their drinker or putting'em to bed at night, but I just stop and look at that group specifically looking for anyone that probably shouldn't be in that group.

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Every day

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I just look for any characteristic that I don't want to carry forward, and they're deselected for future breeding.

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Simple as that.

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I don't want you, you've maybe 95% and we're gonna keep you around just in case 95 percent's good enough for who it's for.

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But if you've got a feature that I don't like, I'm not even considering you.

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It takes a lot to get up the hill to the main hen house.

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Most of my birds live out their lives down there in the pasture overlooking the pond, and they don't ever go up the hill.

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Yeah, I think there's.

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A big difference and many folks don't realize this, but there's a big difference between maintaining your flock versus improving your flock or your breeding.

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And we've talked about this before and we see it all the time on online eBay and whatnot, but people are just throwing birds together and mating them and trying to make a quick buck off of them.

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And man, that never works out.

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I love it when I see show quality chicks.

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Oh no.

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How, who were show quality hatching eggs.

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That's always a nice selling point.

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I can tell you who the mom and the pop was and tell you how many eggs that mom laid in the past year, and what her survivability rate has been for the past year.

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But other than that, no.

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I can't guarantee it's gonna win any awards.

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People forget that breeders have culls at the same rate that anybody else does, and Maybe 10% of their birds are gonna be worth keeping and moving their flock forward.

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Yep.

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At the end of the day, it boils down to percentages, and if you mated, it's gonna give you a more clear understanding of how your percentages are actually breaking out.

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Into what's a good breeding quality bird?

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What's a possible show quality bird, and what's a bird that should probably only be doing breakfast egg production.

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And when you flock me and you increase your pool of diversity, it gets harder and harder to track your percentages of what your actual call rate is versus your rate of keeper birds.

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It makes more sense to shrink down what you're breeding from and selection is how you do that.

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And it helps guide and steer that flock into being better to get past that maintenance phase.

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And if you do cer, start seeing certain characteristics popping up that you don't like, you can go back and root them out.

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Sometimes it's not a retreat, but in advance to the rear.

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Yeah, and that's where your records are gonna come in handy.

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And you're gonna be able to say you know what, with this hand, with this rooster gave me this, but this rooster with this other hand gave me these other chicks that had these really desirable qualities.

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Maybe, I should focus in that direction.

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I think that most people tend to keep too many average quality birds in their flock.

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You're.

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If you have a overall average flock, that's all you can ever expect

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to have.

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Exactly right.

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You can't improve your flock, build a stronger, better flock using just average quality birds.

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So

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y'all keep that in mind.

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Setting eggs from hands

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that lay a minimum of five eggs.

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Per week consecutively before taking a pause.

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That's my minimum threshold for production going forward.

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If you're not laying me five eggs a week, you have no place on anybody's farm that's going to depend on you for, food sustenance and, a good return on investment, the amount of food going in versus the amount of food coming out.

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The way it was explained to me that made it really easy to understand was an old time farmer sat me down.

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And said, you can raise a$10 chicken or you can raise a hundred dollars chicken.

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They need the same space, the same feed, the same daily care.

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You get to pick what kind of bird are you raising and why.

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And putting that to me that way made it go, oh,

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It boils down to.

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Making poor selections waste your time, your space, and your feed.

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Even if you're working with great genetics.

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Sure.

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Because those good genetics need to be upheld it.

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They need to be it.

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It's continual work.

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The work doesn't stop because you bought good birds.

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It just gave you a solid beginning to work from.

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And you should always be working to improve.

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If you're not moving forward God, all these military cliches just keep coming into play.

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I'll stop, but it's so true.

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It's so true.

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You're it's a constant process and if you slack off for even a generation, things can slide real fast in a direction you may not like.

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Let's talk a little bit about I guess for lack of a better description, the timeline of thinning, what to watch for and when I start looking for reasons to call birds as soon as I take'em outta the hatcher I don't wait.

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I don't wanna overdo it, but I also don't want to leave an obviously inferior bird No.

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To have to.

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Carry it forward, feed it, carry for it, and invest money into it.

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Navel not fully sealed even.

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Yep.

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Deformities of any kind,

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pretty much any kind.

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Being the thing to harp on, because I did for a while, spend my time trying to save everyone, for sentiment.

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And

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you're weakening.

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You're weakening your flock by doing it.

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Yeah.

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That eventually became really apparent.

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And those issues, you need to really spend your time doing your homework on getting to the bottom of why you solve those problems.

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Was it incubation?

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Was it nutrition?

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Was it genetics?

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Do your due diligence to figure out why you solve that and it makes the decisions easier to manage later on.

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Some

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of things, and now that we've been around this cycle a few times, oh yeah, you folks, you should be getting it.

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I.

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I'm really inspired.

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I wanna start hearing back from the folks that have been listening for a while and been applying some of these concepts and, give us a reality check.

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Are your birds looking better today than they were two or three years before this podcast?

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Mine

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are.

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I know mine are because I'm constantly

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learning and I'm constantly improving.

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And if there's a mistake to be made, I've made it and I probably will make it a few more times.

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'cause I've taken a couple knocks in the head and I learn hard.

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I hear in another 10, 15, 20 years, I expect to still be learning.

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I've been at this chicken business since I was three and I'm 74 now, and I still learn something new on a regular basis.

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Me too.

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I started at seven, I'm 42, and there's still a lot more to learn.

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It's a lifelong process,

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and every time you start with a new group of genetics and your birds, you're starting over

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Oh.

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With how they're gonna be and what's included in their genetics.

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It's a whole new adventure with every type you try.

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I thought we've talked people outta.

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Out crossing by this point.

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But seriously, if you wanna look at your long-term sustainability and line consistency, that's what it's about.

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It's all about selecting and having a homogenous flock and just being very critical and attention to all the important details.

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Sorry, military folks.

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That first couple of weeks, let's say the first four weeks, that's pretty universal in what you're looking for selection.

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You're looking for your most robust, you're looking for your healthiest.

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You're looking for the ones with the most energy and the ones who kind.

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Yeah, sit under the light too often in the brooder.

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They don't get up and eat as often as the others do.

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Like those are the little notes you can start looking at in the beginning.

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Yeah.

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And that's universal in all brooders.

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Someone's gonna be the leader, someone's gonna be the dud.

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Sure.

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And if you're interacting with your birds regularly, which you should be doing again, if you weigh your birds.

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Every day for the first three weeks, that information is incredibly valuable to us.

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The selection process and just that level of interaction with your birds, even if it's for 30 seconds every day, just handling them, you're gonna be able to start sorting'em and they're gonna start imprinting on you and them.

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And there's all sorts of helpful benefits to that, but in the selection process you're evaluating Bird Against Bird in a cohort, which you're always doing.

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John, you were talking about weighing your birds and that is so important.

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I pay attention to the size at Hatch, but by regularly weighing them as they grow during that first four weeks, I get a really good idea.

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About their feed, their response to the feed that I'm using.

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I know I'm using a good quality feed and I hope y'all are too.

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So if you know you've got a good quality feed, how they respond to that feed?

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How they grow Yes.

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Is so important.

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I had a watering problem that I didn't realize until I was doing daily weights and I had flushed the watering system and I weighed everybody.

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I cleaned the watering system, weighed everybody, and then put'em back in and I forgot to flush the system.

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And the very next day I noticed there was like no weight gain across the board.

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And I went, whoa.

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So something's wrong.

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And I realized that, they weren't drinking because it still had some hydrogen peroxide based cleaner in it.

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And I drained the system and flushed it, and they immediately started drinking.

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The next day the weight gain came.

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But even seeing that very slight.

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I'm used to a two to three gram gain at that phase of life.

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What is that gonna cost me at harvest time?

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It's super important during that phase of life that you always have feed and water in front of them at all times, and just being off of water makes them go off a feed.

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And then it affects the gain and affects the yield.

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So that whole hatch, I consider just meat birds.

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I'm not even looking to move them forward just'cause they didn't drink water for 12 hours.

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And for the folks that are listening, that's so important and you probably never would've picked up on that if you hadn't been weighing your birds on such a regular basis.

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If that had gone two days, no, completely.

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I would've had

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dead birds in the broder.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Because at, I think they were four or five days of age.

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They can't go two days without water.

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No, that's, and you've been sitting there

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scratching your head trying to figure out what the problem was.

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Oh, I knew exactly what the problem was.

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'cause the drain bucket was sitting right underneath the tap that I installed to train the system.

00:12:54.778 --> 00:12:57.123
No, if you had ignored it, if you hadn't Oh yeah.

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I would've had a bunch of diagnosed the problem.

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You would've wound up with dead birds.

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Absolutely.

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Especially at that stage of life.

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Now

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sometimes I get a little frustrated when I see stories about, catastrophic loss, where a problem went unnoticed and now they have birds no longer in existence.

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And a disproportionate number of people sometimes seem to blame the source when they miss something.

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That was, it happened on the farm when they had the chicks.

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It wasn't the breeder.

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It wasn't the hatchery.

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It was a mistake that happened.

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But they didn't see that mistake, so they put the blame elsewhere.

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I would say that if you get a bird past day five without any deformities, it's all on you.

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Yeah.

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Anytime that I would lose a bird or two.

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All right and during the brooding stage, I knew I was feeding good feet.

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That wasn't the issue.

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I knew I had great genetics.

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That wasn't the issue.

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So the next thing it can be is something I've done management wise that's caused that problem.

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But most folks just don't see themselves as being prone to making mistakes.

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I know I was.

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And boy, that can bite you big time.

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It can, it's really hard to, and it hurts and it's frustrating.

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Frustrating for sure,

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because ultimately you come back to something there, Rip.

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Ultimately it all comes back to one thing, the chicken tender, the person.

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Yes,

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absolutely.

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So you have to take that res I consider my chicken, my junior enlisted, it's my job to get'em through bootcamp and deployed to the field and bring'em back home for their welcome home barbecue or roast or.

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Sauce or whatever.

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A, after I get my birds outta that first four weeks, that first month, then I start to focus on feather growth and development.

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I'm still focused on vigor.

00:15:00.548 --> 00:15:02.227
I always, you don't necessarily

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want the first or the last?

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No.

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But you can,

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but it's good note to them.

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Yeah.

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And during that second month, you can also begin to check for structural alignment body structure.

00:15:17.543 --> 00:15:17.783
Yeah.

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This is when he's right at that

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five to eight week point is where I'm looking for mine to start widening out.

00:15:23.753 --> 00:15:23.962
Yes.

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And if they don't, then I know they're on the call list.

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How many body types do you think you can distinctly differentiate in your flock?

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In my own flock?

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Yeah.

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Oh, like five.

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Okay.

00:15:38.482 --> 00:15:50.993
Because I have some diversity alongside my line bread birds and my experimental breeding, let me see the range and that range just in one breed.

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Fascinating.

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It is

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And lots to sort through, right?

00:15:56.138 --> 00:16:04.508
So the less of a sample set you start with, like having a rooster and a hen, or a rooster and a hen or two

00:16:05.258 --> 00:16:06.123
that would, you're tighten it up a bit.

00:16:06.128 --> 00:16:06.638
You're going

00:16:06.638 --> 00:16:09.577
to have a much tighter genetic bottleneck.

00:16:09.577 --> 00:16:14.378
And as long as you maintain with enough rotational diversity, we.

00:16:14.857 --> 00:16:21.138
We've talked about that to keep it moving forward, the tricky part, you're moving more towards a tighter flock, I think.

00:16:21.168 --> 00:16:31.457
But yeah, that diversity, I would say about four or five distinct body types I can recognize out there, even in the chicks, I'm like, oh yeah, I know you and I know you.

00:16:32.357 --> 00:16:37.187
I've been very fortunate in that I'm working with a line of bread that's very old.

00:16:37.847 --> 00:16:42.918
They've been bred the same way for decades and they are very consistent.

00:16:43.758 --> 00:16:43.998
Yes.

00:16:44.028 --> 00:16:51.518
And so I can tell at a glance when there's a grow out that doesn't look like it should.

00:16:52.418 --> 00:16:53.258
I don't see it very often.

00:16:53.258 --> 00:16:54.187
See, there's value in that.

00:16:54.457 --> 00:16:54.817
Yes.

00:16:55.447 --> 00:16:55.597
Yeah.

00:16:55.602 --> 00:16:58.538
And they've been grown in your general area, right?

00:16:58.538 --> 00:17:02.677
With your general feed and water and husbandry practices.

00:17:03.248 --> 00:17:07.867
Man, now they didn't get imported from some cold place and have to acclimate.

00:17:08.768 --> 00:17:23.768
And I say that to encourage people to really focus on the consistency of your flock, because the more you do that and the more consistent your bird gets, your culling decisions are going to be much easier.

00:17:24.053 --> 00:17:27.053
Because you'll spot something that's outta the norm.

00:17:27.472 --> 00:17:28.012
Right off.

00:17:28.192 --> 00:17:30.083
Differences will be more dramatic.

00:17:30.442 --> 00:17:31.403
Oh, absolutely.

00:17:32.303 --> 00:17:34.012
It's like the old system to be street song.

00:17:34.222 --> 00:17:35.603
Can we sing that without getting,

00:17:36.502 --> 00:17:37.042
probably not

00:17:37.042 --> 00:17:41.542
dinged by the, I can't sing anyways, but one of these things is not like the other.

00:17:41.548 --> 00:17:42.008
Bye-bye.

00:17:42.907 --> 00:17:43.127
And.

00:17:43.907 --> 00:17:50.448
Some of this is what we're talking about is going to be influenced by the breed itself.

00:17:50.567 --> 00:18:05.711
Do you have a fairly fast developing breed or do you have something that's more towards the long time slow development like coachings or bras or some of the Asia addicts?

00:18:06.251 --> 00:18:10.271
Mandelyn one thing I've always been impressed by year birds is they develop.

00:18:11.172 --> 00:18:13.301
Really good for a dual purpose bird.

00:18:14.201 --> 00:18:14.951
They don't mention they're great

00:18:14.951 --> 00:18:16.122
for impatient people

00:18:17.021 --> 00:18:18.102
and they'll tell

00:18:18.102 --> 00:18:19.301
you pretty early.

00:18:19.811 --> 00:18:23.172
One thing I see in Johns Birds is the consistency.

00:18:24.041 --> 00:18:24.672
Oh yeah.

00:18:24.791 --> 00:18:28.426
Not only that, consistency, not only the, it's hard

00:18:28.426 --> 00:18:28.906
to interrupt,

00:18:29.527 --> 00:18:33.076
but the chick you can spot there tight, just bam.

00:18:33.977 --> 00:18:34.636
Even as chicks,

00:18:35.537 --> 00:18:52.237
I have some birds in my little project pen that even though they're 75% American breasts, that level of breeding that went into the Cler outcross it's still there just as strong.

00:18:52.987 --> 00:18:56.977
And I'm like, these are 75%, a completely different breed.

00:18:56.977 --> 00:18:59.946
Why do they look like the one 25% parent?

00:19:00.846 --> 00:19:01.416
Wow.

00:19:02.317 --> 00:19:02.606
Yeah,

00:19:03.186 --> 00:19:06.271
the force is strong, but you back breed in and a Yeah.

00:19:06.321 --> 00:19:09.682
It's generations and generations of election.

00:19:10.582 --> 00:19:16.027
Now that you've met my upstream breeder I get goosebumps thinking about you getting some hatching eggs straight from them.

00:19:16.076 --> 00:19:17.821
You, I gotta get you contact.

00:19:17.821 --> 00:19:19.221
I get today

00:19:20.122 --> 00:19:20.602
the person

00:19:20.602 --> 00:19:27.172
that I consider the master breeder of this line, which I recently met, and it was a, an amazing experience.

00:19:28.071 --> 00:19:31.951
In fact, I've got a rooster out here named Hale that came from him.

00:19:32.852 --> 00:19:33.392
Nice.

00:19:34.021 --> 00:19:37.261
He said, Hey, I've got a rooster that I heard you desperately need.

00:19:37.261 --> 00:19:38.642
And I'm like, oh, okay.

00:19:39.481 --> 00:19:41.132
And wow, is he great.

00:19:42.031 --> 00:19:44.342
After we get through the second month.

00:19:45.241 --> 00:19:47.912
And start into that nine to 12 week period.

00:19:48.811 --> 00:19:56.652
E even with the slower growing ones, you'll begin to see early hints about what their brewed type brewed their breed type is going to be.

00:19:57.192 --> 00:19:57.551
Definitely.

00:19:57.632 --> 00:20:05.846
You're gonna see you temperament and postures and this is when you can really start to see the width of body on it at least you can.

00:20:05.846 --> 00:20:06.446
On my birds.

00:20:07.346 --> 00:20:07.557
Yep,

00:20:07.676 --> 00:20:08.211
mine too.

00:20:08.821 --> 00:20:09.102
Yeah,

00:20:09.162 --> 00:20:09.701
John's too.

00:20:10.376 --> 00:20:26.258
I've got some that I'm looking at with, I've got a particular line, the bird is more of an upright head posture, like a Cornish posture with a a puffed out chest, kinda like standing at attention versus there's a bird that's got a slightly slouched shoulder looking thing and I'm like, okay, I like you better.

00:20:26.288 --> 00:20:29.528
'cause you just look better, stronger.

00:20:29.978 --> 00:20:31.968
You're looking intimidated at.

00:20:32.867 --> 00:20:36.157
Area I'm looking for a level stance.

00:20:36.458 --> 00:20:53.798
Nothing too upright, because some of'em are pretty posty and it almost implies they're not gonna get the length I need'em to get Uhhuh just by that early expression of the structure they're developing, like I know they all have a long time to grow and to keep maturing.

00:20:54.607 --> 00:20:56.048
Mandelyn, I've got a question for you.

00:20:56.048 --> 00:20:57.817
Those very upright chicks.

00:20:58.718 --> 00:21:04.897
Do you also find that they are very shallow in their body with very little Bresse?

00:21:04.897 --> 00:21:04.958
Yeah.

00:21:05.587 --> 00:21:05.917
Yeah.

00:21:06.817 --> 00:21:07.928
A little short in the back.

00:21:07.932 --> 00:21:09.883
They're more penguin than chicken sometimes.

00:21:10.198 --> 00:21:10.998
That's a good description.

00:21:11.897 --> 00:21:11.988
Yeah.

00:21:11.988 --> 00:21:13.397
I'm looking for the bulldozers.

00:21:13.518 --> 00:21:21.682
So when they're out there at this level of age and they start doing their little chest bump and wing flapping thing, I'm looking for the guy that's got the chest and the.

00:21:22.147 --> 00:21:23.498
Mass behind him.

00:21:24.188 --> 00:21:28.417
I almost said the word without the m to, win these little chest bumping contests.

00:21:28.417 --> 00:21:30.307
That's the natural progression.

00:21:30.307 --> 00:21:33.798
That's how they would naturally choose who's the it out there.

00:21:33.798 --> 00:21:43.097
So by observing this and going, oh obviously, that's the leader of the pac they've established themselves to the PAC and to me,

00:21:43.998 --> 00:21:45.347
I think by the time.

00:21:45.887 --> 00:21:50.448
Birds hit around 13 to 16 weeks, four months of age.

00:21:50.502 --> 00:21:58.153
You can get a really good idea about how they're gonna finish out, what your condition's gonna be,

00:21:58.903 --> 00:22:01.992
and that's right before another Molt, that'll change'em.

00:22:01.992 --> 00:22:05.383
And you have to give'em tolerance anytime they're in a Molt.

00:22:05.653 --> 00:22:07.603
'cause you're not seeing the real bird No.

00:22:08.413 --> 00:22:08.803
While

00:22:08.803 --> 00:22:10.722
they're transitioning feathers.

00:22:10.722 --> 00:22:10.992
Yeah.

00:22:10.992 --> 00:22:12.188
And that's something I.

00:22:13.087 --> 00:22:19.327
I don't know if we've ever mentioned on this show, but chicks will go through three molts before they mature.

00:22:20.228 --> 00:22:32.317
You have to be tuned into that, and you have to learn about when your birds, your breed, and your line will go through that process because it can vary from breed to breed

00:22:32.317 --> 00:22:32.528
and

00:22:33.008 --> 00:22:33.758
line to line.

00:22:34.178 --> 00:22:36.607
My selection process starts at Chick down.

00:22:36.667 --> 00:22:38.137
I'm looking for the silvery down.

00:22:38.512 --> 00:22:38.722
Chicks.

00:22:38.972 --> 00:22:41.037
Not the golden yellow down chicks.

00:22:41.126 --> 00:22:42.817
And that goes away, very quickly.

00:22:43.446 --> 00:22:50.317
But wing banding at Hatch, when they go in the brooder and making note of that on day two when they dry out really well, it's pretty obvious.

00:22:50.886 --> 00:22:54.846
And now I've gotten more and more silver chicks and less gold chicks

00:22:55.747 --> 00:23:00.186
And that's something else too fast feathering and slow feathering.

00:23:00.217 --> 00:23:04.686
If you don't check that early on, by the time they hit about.

00:23:05.586 --> 00:23:11.856
Three and a half to four months, you won't be able to know who it is if you're working on improving the feathering rate.

00:23:12.156 --> 00:23:17.737
If you don't mark those slow feathering birds, you're gonna wind up keeping some of them.

00:23:18.396 --> 00:23:24.817
And they become pretty apparent at about five weeks, depending on how they're feathering in.

00:23:24.817 --> 00:23:27.096
That's a pretty early thing you can see.

00:23:27.997 --> 00:23:30.037
The first set of feathers will tell you a lot.

00:23:30.517 --> 00:23:31.836
Yes, absolutely.

00:23:31.836 --> 00:23:32.166
And then the

00:23:32.166 --> 00:23:37.086
second set, and then the third set, and then the one year mini Molt.

00:23:37.987 --> 00:23:44.166
And then you, if you're looking to show, you get some odd color feather popup and you go, oh darn, I'm out.

00:23:45.067 --> 00:23:45.186
Oh,

00:23:45.237 --> 00:23:45.626
yeah.

00:23:45.626 --> 00:23:48.446
I don't really cull for color.

00:23:48.446 --> 00:23:48.477
I.

00:23:49.271 --> 00:23:54.821
Until they go through that first adult Molt, because then it's pretty well set.

00:23:55.721 --> 00:24:06.602
But unless it's a black or white or something like that, but on, on party colored birds with more than one color in their feather patterns, they gotta be mature before you can call for color.

00:24:07.501 --> 00:24:15.632
Now for the dual purpose thing, because I always want to have my bulk harvest done at 14 to 18 weeks.

00:24:15.751 --> 00:24:20.372
I spend a lot of time with'em at 12 weeks.

00:24:20.821 --> 00:24:32.612
Really looking at who's meaty feeling now, and who's lanky and bony focused on structure growth because those birds focusing on that structure growth.

00:24:32.856 --> 00:24:43.291
Where they have like that heritage Turkey growth rate where they gain their height and their frame before they flesh in that lets you know they're gonna be a slow burn.

00:24:43.382 --> 00:24:47.582
You're gonna have to give'em some time and you're not processing at 16 weeks.

00:24:47.582 --> 00:24:49.471
You're gonna have to wait.

00:24:49.997 --> 00:24:59.926
So my breeding focus is on those who are meaty for the duration of growth, and I've noticed some structure notes there between the length of lag and stuff like that.

00:24:59.926 --> 00:25:03.767
It, those are all your indicators on what type of growth they have.

00:25:04.666 --> 00:25:11.146
So you really wanna get in there and spend time with them and handle'em and weigh'em and feel'em and figure out which growth trajectory.

00:25:11.446 --> 00:25:12.527
They're following.

00:25:12.916 --> 00:25:16.547
And if it's what you want, that's your possible breeding bird.

00:25:16.696 --> 00:25:28.696
And if it's not what you want, then it's not gonna be a breeding bird because the whole point breed'em for what you want'em to be while monitoring your breed standards so you don't stray outside of that for breed integrity.

00:25:29.596 --> 00:25:34.832
I think one thing that the three of us has done, and I'm not bragging on myself, but I'm.

00:25:35.731 --> 00:25:38.402
No longer than you have been into the game compared to me.

00:25:38.402 --> 00:25:48.031
I'm very proud of what you two have accomplished, but is you've learned about the inherited potential of your birds.

00:25:48.031 --> 00:25:52.951
And by that I mean you've learned what your line's going to do.

00:25:53.041 --> 00:25:59.821
You could look at a bird at a certain age and you can see in your mind what it's going to look as an adult.

00:25:59.872 --> 00:26:02.152
And you only get that from spending time with them.

00:26:02.152 --> 00:26:02.332
That's

00:26:02.332 --> 00:26:02.721
right.

00:26:03.471 --> 00:26:10.067
And spending time is not going out there and feeding water and then cutting out and going and eating or do something else, or throwing a

00:26:10.067 --> 00:26:11.707
handful of sit down on a bucket, blood worms at em

00:26:11.707 --> 00:26:12.067
bucket.

00:26:12.071 --> 00:26:12.592
That's right.

00:26:13.491 --> 00:26:13.731
Yeah.

00:26:13.731 --> 00:26:24.332
Every morning now I'm taking my bruter birds outta the brooder, putting them in a catch cage and carrying'em out to a little kid playground pen that I put in the front yard and letting them.

00:26:24.791 --> 00:26:28.961
Cheap, around in the grass with water and food and every night I put'em back into the brooder.

00:26:29.862 --> 00:26:31.122
And you get to handle each one?

00:26:31.211 --> 00:26:31.451
Yeah.

00:26:31.501 --> 00:26:37.862
I got to the point now where if I lay the catch cage down and open the door, they'll run into the cage.

00:26:38.612 --> 00:26:40.892
I actually have to like only let half of them in.

00:26:40.892 --> 00:26:42.241
'cause it gets a little too heavy for me.

00:26:42.541 --> 00:26:50.071
But the five turkeys and 10 chi, I don't know, four, three and a half, four week olds, they really need to come outside.

00:26:50.082 --> 00:26:52.182
I'm waiting for somebody to come pick these up Saturday.

00:26:53.082 --> 00:26:54.192
They love routine.

00:26:54.852 --> 00:26:55.422
Yes, they do.

00:26:56.082 --> 00:26:56.501
They do.

00:26:56.652 --> 00:26:58.182
And the turkeys are so cute.

00:26:58.811 --> 00:27:01.662
It's gonna break my heart to lose three of the five.

00:27:02.561 --> 00:27:09.386
This doesn't have much to do with selection, but a couple of days ago, we did have to march our nine teenage turkeys into a new area.

00:27:09.606 --> 00:27:19.156
And if I was assigning their demeanor into selection, there's one male who is better at being a leader.

00:27:19.727 --> 00:27:23.866
And listening to me and leading the flock where I want'em to go.

00:27:24.136 --> 00:27:29.027
And the other two got distracted, wanted to do their own thing.

00:27:29.027 --> 00:27:31.336
They made the whole thing more difficult than it needed to be.

00:27:31.336 --> 00:27:34.217