New member, here. I've been reading the site for the last six months, when I brought home a hatchery order of day-old chicks (5 barred rocks, 5 brown leghorns, and 5 "sapphire splashes," a hatchery cross-breed). We started getting eggs at the end of December and almost all 15 of them are laying now. I bought them as part of our homesteading efforts and didn't realize how interesting they'd be to watch and interact with. Now I'm looking forward to adding another batch to the flock in a couple of years: speckled Sussex next time.