Chickens eating their scratch
I haven’t posted about the ladies for a while. This is our third year with chickens. Right now, we have a flock of seven hens. We’ve got one Australorp, one Barred Rock, two New Hampshires, one Golden Sexlink, and two Delawares. The ladies are currently staying in their winter home, which is a coop near the house. In a few weeks, once the pasture starts growing a bit faster, we’ll move them back to the coop in the pasture.
Eggs
You know spring is here when the egg production significantly increases. Our seven ladies are now producing an average of five eggs per day. That adds up pretty quickly and allows us to have extras to share with friends and family. It also means we have plenty for making really yummy egg salad.
Of course, it’s also baby chick season and I’m contemplating whether or not to get 3 – 4 more babies. Some of our hens are getting older and it isn’t uncommon for us to lose a chicken or two during the spring and summer when they are in the pasture. I haven’t made a decision yet, but am starting to think about it. We’ll see!
Sandy
The 10 Year Challenge 
Lovely mixed breed flock and they are producing nicely for you. We were planning on phasing in a few youngsters in about a year and try and develop a mixed age flock over time – a few youngers, some middle aged, and hopefully a few elderly ladies that are enjoying retirement. We figured the third year after acquring them (which will be next year) would be the right time to begin that. The dilemma is how to integrate young chicks into an established flock. I have some good suggestions from several folks but the easiest method is to cull the oldsters and just start over – which is not what I want to do with my flock.
Hi Laura,
We’ve integrated flocks a few times. What we’v found works best is to keep the young pullets in a chicken tractor in the pasture with the older chickens for a few days before letting them out. This way, the pullets are protected but the older hens start getting visually used to the new additions. Also, we wait until the pullets are big enough to stand up for themselves. We’ve also found that it helps to finally let everyone out in the evening right before they go to sleep. There are usually a few days of the pecking order being worked out, but we haven’t had any major integration problems.
Sandy