We bought a straight run of 100 chicks in May.  A straight run is the “luck of the draw”, so to speak.  When the chicks hatch in the incubator, we get whatever hatches.  We can choose the breed, but the ratio of rooster to poulet will not be our choice.   A rooster is a male; a poulet is a female.  Generally speaking, though, in all the time we have ordered chicks we have gotten nearly a 50:50 assortment.

We keep the chicks in a brooder house all summer.  We fence them in so that they don’t mix with the laying hens and the “head” rooster in their roaming or in the coop.

At this time of year, our roosters and poulets are mature.  The roosters dominate the poulets somewhat.  To allow the poulets to begin their egg-laying duties they must have more space.

When we butcher the roosters, that gives the poulets the environment they need.  They begin to enhance our egg supply.  The brown eggs are very small at the start.  But the size grows as time goes by.

We keep the poulets and sometimes sell the old hens so that we don’t have to keep so many in the coop over the winter.  Since the fox has cheated us out of a lot of old hens this summer, we have considered keeping the old ones as well as the young ones.  We like to have a generous supply of eggs on hand to share with our family and friends.

photo credit: Jon Olav via photopin cc
photo credit: loungerie via photopin cc