Flock Planning Timeline (For Peeps Like Me!)
| Year | Hatch New Chicks? | Who’s Laying? | Egg Output | Why This Timing? |
|---|
| 0 | Start flock | All pullets | High (after 6 mo) | Everyone’s young and productive |
| 1 | No | All are 6–18 months | Peak production | Let them do their thing |
| 2 | Hatch 2–3 eggs | Original hens 18–30 mo, new chicks | Steady but declining | New pullets lay just as older hens fade |
| 3 | No | Older hens slowing, 2nd gen peaks | Balanced | Small but efficient flock size |
| 4 | Hatch 1–2 more | 1st gen retirees, 2nd slowing | Still solid supply | Keeps the cycle going without crowding |
I figure if I hatch my own, it keeps things fun and self-sustaining. Plus, I’m curious to see how those Marans/Leghorn/RIR hybrids turn out—egg color lottery, maybe?
Does that seem reasonable? Of course if I hatch my own... they are not linked- and soon enough it is incest
I foresee problems with your hatching plans.
When you hatch chicks, about half of them will be male.
Do you have plans for what to do with the males?
It is usually not a good idea to raise a single chick by itself. It tends to be lonely and unhappy, and it does not learn how to properly interact with other chickens (which causes problems when you try to add it to the flock later.) So I would not plan to hatch "1-2" in year 4. And I would be nervous about the "2-3" in year 2, in case something goes wrong and you are left with just one.
If you have a hen that goes broody, that can change things a bit. A single chick raised by a broody hen is not alone & unhappy the way a single chick in a brooder would be, and the hen can teach the chick how to properly interact with herself and other chickens.
If a hen goes broody, it might be reasonable to give her just one or two eggs, and have a plan to deal with any males that may result (sell them, give them away, butcher them, or whatever else works for you.)
If you wanted to buy chicks, I would probably buy sexed females in groups of three or more, when your flock shrinks or the laying rate goes down.
If you want to hatch chicks and raise them yourself, I would probably try to do at least 6 at a time. Whatever your plan is for extra males, if you end up with extra females you can do the same thing with them too.
If you keep your flock small and your chickens are more like pets, do you just wait until something happens (illness, predator, etc.) and then add a new bird? Because adding just one or two means handling that whole “bully the new kid” problem as I definitely would raise them as pets again and watch tv with them- like my other chicks.
For that situation, I would probably wait until the flock size has dropped enough to let you add several chicks at once.
I also suggest, when you think about chicks each spring, that you think carefully about each one of your current hens. If an older hen has a hard time one winter, you may consider if she should be euthanized before the next winter. If there is a hen that does not get along well in the flock, you might re-home her to a different flock. If there is one that you just do not like for any reason, you might re-home or otherwise remove her too. Once you know which hens will be leaving the flock, you have a better idea of how many replacement chicks you will want to raise that spring and summer.
For the rooster, you can either plan to raise a son to replace him at some point, or you can wait until something happens to the current one and then buy a new male (either an adult, or a chick when you are raising other chicks.)
