How often do you get new birds?

[postman44]

I like to add 3 or 4 newbies every year. I try to rotate breeds to make it easy to track egg color production . This last year I had a rooster as one of my newbies. That was a mistake. They look pretty but they are nasty. I mistook a bullying very aggressive rooster for molting in my hens. By the time I realized he was nearly pecking my hens to death, I culled him. Traumatized my poor hens so bad I'm lucky to get 3 eggs a day out of 7 hens that are 14 months old. Will probably wipe the slate clean this spring with 12 chicks.

 

[micstrachan]

I am also very attached. Started with 4 chicks three years ago. Got 6 more 13 months later and lost one of the original 4 to EYP, leaving me with 9 total. Mine are pets with benefits (eggs). Held off on getting chicks last year so as not to disrupt the peace. Missed eggs over winter. (You’d be surprised how well egg replacer performs in cookies... just can’t get myself to buy what I call “torture eggs,” but hubby did buy one 18-pack of pastured eggs over Christmas.) Anyway, had hoped to get just 3-4 chicks this year, but virulent Newcastle disease is wreaking havoc in Southern California, and since I’m in Northern California, I think I’m leaving my flock closed. Bummed about that, but in the dreaded case mandated euthanasia orders reach my area, it just seems irresponsible to get more birds. We’ll see how long my will power lasts.

 

[Rietta]

So, I started with 6... 1 year ago. have 11 hens and 1 roo now, picking up 4 chicks tomorrow and have a broody on at least 4 eggs. What to do with all those eggs? Makes my husband crazy hahaOh and just finishing up a second bigger coop. Its an addiction. Going into the feed store is dangerous the little peeps call and lure me....

 

[deeglenn]

I am one who has pets that give you breakfast. With me it was entirely to have them for pets, give them names, teaching kids to be good about pet care and so on. We had one accidental Rooster, but he is a "good" rooster and doesn't chase people around. When they are too old for laying they will do bug patrol. I did locate of couple places that will take them if something should happen but we will keep them in place. I only added to the group one time when I found out why the rooster was over romancing the original 6 girls.

 

[MuffinsGhost]

Hello!
I've had chickens for ~3 years, and I've always gotten new chicks in the spring to replace deaths. However, since I restarted my entire flock last February (after a predator got all of my previous girls at once) I've had no deaths, and so I have nothing that I need to replace. However, it's spring, and... I want chicks. So, how often do y'all get new birds?

And, a very connected question, how long do you let your birds live with you? I was very connected to my original flock- treated them like pets- and I was devastated after losing them. I since decided not to get as attached to my hens, and my current girls are much more eye-candy & egg producers than family members. As such, I'm considering transitioning from my plan when I first got chickens- keep them for 6-8 years and replace only as necessary- to getting three/four new chicks every spring and processing my least favorite of the adults every fall once the newbies started laying. (I live in an area with an eight adult hen limit, so this would mean that I'd consistently have 8 layers). How long do you keep birds before 're-purposing' them? On one hand, it feels kind of cruel to cull healthy, laying birds at a year and a half because I don't like them. On the other hand, they'll be better for eating when they're still young-ish, and some of my hens haven't been laying as well as I'd like (I've had at least three that stopped laying in November and still haven't started back up yet. While they'll be fine layers again in March or so, I don't know if I want to keep birds that only lay eight months a year). Also, raising chicks is one of my favorite parts of chicken keeping- and I'd get some good stew hens at least once a year.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and what you do with your own flocks.

I’m kind of in the same boat. We’ve had our birds for going on 3 years too. Started with 5, lost a few, adopted a few, and raised a few chicks. We had 12 now down to 10 thanks to an unknown varmint sneaking in. Our flock has grown over the years with a mix of younger and older hens. A few have been killed by predators so we usually add to the flock each spring. Some of the older hens haven’t been laying so we thought about harvesting a few of them, they are not cheap to keep fed 365 days a year especially on an organic layer pellet diet. We are considering butchering the ones that aren’t laying. Carrie Underwood(our prettiest Easter egger) must’ve heard this idea and a few weeks later started laying every other day again. Lucky for her. This was all after the arctic blast in northern IL brought -50 degree temps with the wind chill. It stressed them out pretty bad but they made it through. Point is, these animals are meant to serve a purpose, we do make them our pets but don’t get too attached. I would gladly butcher big bird (a super skiddish Brahma we rescued) who never lays any eggs. However she is a good flock mate if only for a decoy. Some older hens continue to lay so they will continue to exist...for now. We will butcher or cull as we see necessary. The chicken adventure does get to a point where you have to make a choice. They won’t lay forever... I don’t see anything wrong with keeping your favorite layers and harvesting the unfavorable not good layers. They’re living a much better life than in factory farms and keeping them till they die of old age seems counterintuitive. Chickens were bred by humans thousands of years ago to serve a purpose. That purpose is to provide food whether it’s eggs or meat...Its up to you to decide when its time to make soup out of them and send em off to the great coop in the sky!! LOL!!

 

[GC-Raptor]

What is INSTANT POT???

An electric pressure cooker. GC

 

[roseytheriveter]

We started out 6 years ago with 6 Rhodies. They were great layers and very friendly since hubby had more time then to spend with them. All of them have since passed and I believe we now have a mix of our 2nd and 3rd group of hens; we had a few bad spells with an unknown illness killing off several and one time a hawk got one. We keep our dogs out back so hawks normally don't get an opportunity to do that, but this was a morning they were in...sigh. So now we are down to 3 black Jerseys and 2 Rhodies. They're from two separate years' of hens; the survivors!

 

[DebD]

Hufflefluff (cute!), we replaced our original flock after 3-4 years, as the egg-laying began to taper off. Our first flock was made up of breeds that were not as prolific egg layers as the breeds we replaced them with. Our purpose is to produce organic eggs and meat so, yes, we continue to replace whenever the egg count goes down significantly. We also buy costly organic food and only have limited space in the coop so we have to take that into consideration. But, that being said, I was very attached to my first flock. Sat with them in the pen until they became tame enough to sit on my shoulders or lap and come when I called. Then I let them roam freely during supervised periods during the day (we have hawks and our land isn't fenced in). I would sit in a chair and watch them. Problem was, they were so tame and attached to me, they wouldn't roam very far to forage so I would have to move my chair around in order to lead them about! They were so dear! But, I had to make a decision to either treat my hens as barnyard animals and stay detached or enjoy them, love on them but remember why we have them. I've found that if I let my husband do "the deed" I am okay, as long as I can replace them soon! I have a background in Ag Ed/Animal Science which probably helps to keep me from crossing that fine line into considering my hens as pets in the same sense I do my dog. Long story short...if I had the space, time and money, I would raise flocks of organically-raised chickens of all varieties...and let them die naturally!

 

[Larry Rose]

I hatch pretty much constantly from March to June every year. Right now I have 27 eggs in the incubator.
I cull the layers when they stop, well, laying. That's usually about 2 yrs old.

 

[twendt]

My 13yr old daughter is disappointed that I decided not to buy chicks this year, I have 6 good layers, 4 are 2yrs old and 2 are 1yr old. It was very difficult not to buy chicks, I have 6 chickens too many...they're underground chickens