New Laying Hens

On Thursday, we took the delivery of 100 new (day old) laying hens.  Our hens have been performing very well for us.  They are laying some nice sized brown eggs with rich yolks and firm whites.  They have performed so well, that we decided to expand.  One hundred (day old) chicks arrived on Thursday morning.  They are now safely unpacked in the brooder.  We keep our baby chicks in the chicken coop under heat lamps.  They need to be kept at about 100 degrees for the first week or two.  Then we can slowly drop the temperature.  In about 4 months they will begin laying small "pullet eggs" and a month after that we will have large to extra large eggs from them.  Each chicken typically lays about 6 eggs a week.  These new layers should produce a total of about 7 dozen a day.  We pick up the eggs daily, wash them, and pack them in cartons.  This spring, we will have the egg-mobile constructed to move our layers around our pastures.  We range the birds.  They get fresh grass and bugs at their convenience.  It makes for some healthy, happy birds.  By letting the birds range, they expend tremendous amounts of energy foraging.  This reduces the bird's cannibalistic behaviors.  Many factory farms have the beaks trimmed to reduce the behavior as they are locked in a building for life.  We do not trim beaks or lock them up and have not had a problem with cannibalism.