Yesterday a family came and picked up my old hens and a few roosters. Comparatively the coop looks empty now.
I have 22 hens and one rooster left.
Every three years we get baby chicks in the spring. We raise them with the old hens. Then in the fall when the chicks start laying, we get rid of the old hens.
I don’t know exactly how many they took but I think about 24. They were planning on butchering the roosters and keeping the hens as long as they still laid eggs.
I did keep my old favorite hen.
I have another who looks like her too.
It’s hard to see them go but I can’t afford to feed them once they aren’t laying very many eggs. It helped to see that this family was a group of animal lovers.
The chickens were a little skittish last night after we had caught the other chickens. This morning they are more calm again. Before I knew who the bossy chicken was and who was the shy chicken. Now with the old gals and the rooster gone, it’s going to be interesting to see what the new pecking order will be.
I foisted our old hens off on another homeschool mom who wanted to make soup, mostly because I don’t have the nerve to butcher them myself.
so when they get more than a yr old they don’t lay as many eggs?
Beautiful colors on you hens. Quilt color inspirations can be found anywhere.
do you let your henns breed the chicks themselves or do you buy the new chicks? just curious… you must have had a lot of eggs every day with the 23 henns gone and the ones still at your hennhouse… but to be hinnest nothing beats a home layed egg.. all these eggmachiene aggs… no thank you! another silly question… what collor is the eggyellow of your eggs? i like them dark orangy, somehow i think those eggs come from a happy henn…lol what color do you like them to be?
I love your polish hen I see in the background! My flock of 21 is mostly polish and they are such fun, very talkative too.