Yes, chickens are opposite of humans in both of those respects.
Cockerels are males who are less than one year old, and always develop faster than pullets (females less than a year old). Not to worry. Pullets which have bright red headgear will lay soon. I know, it's hard to be patient.The Ameraucana, barred rocks, & olive/easter eggers have bright red combs & wattles. And the two roosters have had large, bright combs and wattles for the past month, in spite of one of them molting slightly around his neck and under his beak a bit. I wonder why they came of age around when I was expecting, but the hens aren't.
No, I didn’t contact them. There’s not much they could do anyway, since they’re not gonna send me 1 or 2 new chicks, and even if they did, I’d then have 2 younger chicks to introduce to the flock. I prefer introducing new chicks in larger groups. And then, we’d have to get a bigger coop and run, which we can’t afford. Due to all the predators we have around here and how beefy we’d have to make everything, it’d be at least another $5-10k (materials have gotten pricey!!) since we’d have to completely rebuild the coop (it’s currently meant to hold max 12 birds) and maybe increase the length of the run a bit. My husband refuses to hire anyone, so with his work schedule and winter coming, that’d probably all get completed sometime around late summer - fall 2024 at the earliest.
No, they don’t free range. I tried that with our first flock, and they eventually all got picked off by the various predators we have around here (bobcats, bears, mountain lions, hawks, etc). I’ve searched everywhere in their run and coop, and still no eggs.
