Spreading out chicks

[LemonberryMoon]

We got seven chicks about a week ago and since falling in love with them I've found at least two additional breeds I'd like to get, yay for chicken math! But I've been told it's best to spread them out in age. Wait and see if we have any roos in our flock and even to space out their ages for laying purposes, etc.

Advice on this? What do you do with your hens when they stop laying? I don't know that I could get rid of them or butcher them, this is a first for us..... But we also want the eggs and don't want to end up with 7-10 chickens that are done laying and not have room for more.......

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I've not butchered a hen yet only cockerels and roosters. In the past we've sold older hens to have space for that years pullets. We sell them at year to year and half old and still in prime production. Though I still have two three year old Production Reds and know this will be their last summer before making a fall gumbo with them. They simply wont carry their weight come next spring and that would be after a very long winter of next to no eggs from them like this past winter. We've decided to fore go additional lighting in the dark months to increase years of production of our heritage birds so far less eggs collected. Having pullets really helps to get eggs on your table.

The thing about pullets is they don't have a late fall/winter molt with few to no eggs for 3 months or more like older hens do. If you want steady household eggs year round then you need to raise a few chicks each spring and shed some of the mature birds in the fall or spring when when their production is up and more than you need.. For me this is easy to do as we are trying to work with and improve heritage stock. I keep two roosters until almost spring hatching then eat the lesser and come mid summer and again in fall cull cockerels for food too to get down to 2 males again over winter. This rotation is done via a small grow out coop on a tractor to move about the yard. When space is tight cull cockerels and when pullets are large enough sell 1.5 year old hens from the main coop to make space.

This is what I do and the reasons why are year round egg supply and improvement of stock by hatching and culling, eating or selling less desirable birds. As we have roosters and hatch our own eggs butchering is inevitable. Butchering isn't fun but with the right attitude easy to do and the rewards of flavor if cooked slow are worth the effort. The second best rooster we roasted few months ago before collecting hatching eggs was incredible. Any non gumbo bird I'll always soak in a brine as it sets from now on. This summer we'll be running out of space with all the hatched birds so it will be the first time cooking up cornish hen size cockerels and I'm thinking after setting in brine a good marinade soak then grill them whole.