For the first time in our career as chicken tenders, we bought our chickens as pullets (4-month-old hens) instead of raising them from chicks. We sold last year’s layers in January and lived blissfully chicken-free for three whole months. No shoveling snow out of the chicken run, no chicken babysitters on weekends away, no winter feed costs, and for a while, no regrets.
We got our first round of pullets in mid-April (pictured left), and they started laying by mid-May. They were lovely, productive, docile birds who didn’t mind getting their feathers ruffled by a two-year-old. We soon learned, however, that their affable demeanor didn’t extend to their own kind.
We introduced a second round of pullets in the middle of May–a mix of two rarer breeds selected for their fun egg colors–and we’ve been playing referee ever since. The older birds seem to bully the younger ones for sport, pecking their tail feathers and chasing them away from the food and water. To make sure all the birds are getting proper care, we’ve resorted to separating them into two unconnected runs–mean girls on one side, freshmen on the other.
Hopefully, things will normalize eventually. The older birds will get bored with the bullying and the new birds will get a little bolder. We could’ve avoided this problem by getting the pullets all at once, but due to sourcing reasons, we would’ve had to sacrifice all the fun egg colors. In hindsight, green eggs aren’t worth the torment. I guess this story is a long way of saying: sorry, just brown eggs next year.