13 week Pullets' Flock to be trimmed

 A mostly positive outcome this year with the new flock of pullets.  I've sold the majority, and held back a few of each of the breeds that now are going up for sale.  The one disappointment was the number of roosters from the Lavender Orpington group.  That's partly on me. Thankfully, the sold ones were all females so I did good on finding the females early.  But, in the end, I only had one female left over along with seven roosters of the Orpingtons meaning that I only had five females of that breed, to begin with. 

This new hatchery does not gender the Orpington chicks, plus over charged me for the breed at the start.  When I checked back online in March, the price per chick had dropped by $2/chick.... soooooo...... I will not purchase that breed from them in the future.  However, for the most part, I had no deformed chicks this year,  That is a win. I did, however, get a rooster in the Barred Rock group. So, all in all, I did end up with eight roosters along with fifty two pullets.... I lose money on the roosters because, even though they eat more food than pullets, I can barely sell them for the price I paid for them as chicks.  I end up giving them away, actually.  Considering I pay the higher price per chick for females to begin with, well.... Roosters are a pain in the...... But don't get me wrong, this year was WAY better  than last. 

The chick brooder sales were better this year, also, and I only need to sell a few more to whittle down to my "over the winter" flock.  I just won't have any Lavender Orpingtons, once again. I will have have two, to four, of the following breeds; Barred Rock, Steel Blue Novagen, Gold Comet, Amber Links and Easter Eggers. 

Better Luck 2026?

With all the turmoil and loss of chicks last year, we changed up a few things. 1) Found a hatchery closer to home for less travel/delivery issues to contend with. 2) Added a new top to the transition coop for hopefully, fewer weather issues. 3) Watching the ducks' pen more frequently because of a hawk attacking Diego this year. 4) Not raising broilers this year.  5) Pushed back the chick starting time a couple of weeks in hopes of not having to deal with extreme cold temps at the start.  Chick delivery was the first week of March, and this flock will be six weeks old next week.  Ready to go outside next week. 

We originally started last fall with about 15 hens retained from the tragic delivery group of March 2025. We kept them in one pen, apart from the younger May pullets. The March layers were a rough, rag tag group. They were less than cohesive.  All winter long,  I kept giving away a few more trying to find a cohesive flock. But as the numbers continued to dwindle, the aggression did not subside. Because of the aggression, I had few consistent layers in that group. I finally sold the last five in February.  On the other hand, and in a separate pen, the 18 that I retained from my May flock start over has been very solid.  Great layers, and very minimal aggression. I have to assume that the trauma of the delivery last year really set that entire first group back in a bad way. 

Winter was not as cold or destructive this year. Definitely wet with lots of atmospheric rivers pounding the Pacific NW, but the water flooding has been nominal for us. Thankfully. Only had one flooding incident with about 4 inches of water surging into the garage.  Picked up an extra water pump to help reduce that from happening again. 

I have my tomato starts going, and plan to keep most of our garden focus on easy plants this year. 

Photos below: Chicks during human socialization time in their play pen in the garage, new vinyl roofing on the transition pen, ducks are 4 years old now and great foragers, plus photos of our current flock of egg layers.