We need a steady supply of eggs from our backyard coop Doing it successfully takes planning and requires tough decisions

Each spring we buy five or six baby female chicks from a nearby farm store The tiny birds had been hatched just a few days earlier at Hoover’s Hatchery and quickly delivered to the store Soon our tiny peepers are happily housed in our brooder

Why six new chicks?

We like to have about 12 laying chickens to lay enough eggs for us, and we like to give many to friends and neighbors To keep the flock fresh, we replace about half