Since I sometimes offer chicks for sale, there is a steady stream of people who would like to buy young hens coming into lay at the same time, that is in spring and at the start of summer.
I do not sell young hens coming into lay in the spring, because if you put hatching eggs into the incubator in spring, the birds that hatch from them will, as everyone knows, only start laying in the autumn. There are hens that start laying in their fifth month, but there are also those whose first egg does not drop until the eighth or ninth.
Why do I not sell my laying hens in the spring?
Because I do not have a big barn where cows and sheep heat the space and where I could leave a large flock of birds to winter, so as to turn some of them into money in the spring.
I have a small heated space under a shed roof that holds many times fewer birds than I would like. When spring finally comes and the birds have plenty of room to romp about outside, no amount of money will tempt me to give up my few good layers. All the more so because in spring there have to be enough eggs not only for the table but for the incubator too.
Why do I not raise chicks in winter?
First, that needs a heated space outside the living quarters. And the second important reason is that in our climate hens spend the long winter indoors, so under artificial light and mostly on artificial food.
I start collecting hatching eggs in spring, once the hens can scratch about outdoors again, take their sun baths and build themselves up on natural food. That is when they start laying better too, and the hatch rate of the eggs is higher. I also think it matters that the chicks get out into the sun and onto the grass at the first opportunity, so that they grow into strong, healthy birds.
In autumn, when it is time to move the birds indoors, a choice has to be made: who comes inside, who goes into the pot and who goes up for sale.
