Are You a ... Rooster??

Ok, a quick review of our chicken experiences.

We bought 16 chickens from a local homeschool family a few years ago.  They settled in beautifully and were laying at least a dozen eggs a day within a week of our getting them.  3 weeks after they arrived, a determined neighbor dog broke into their chicken yard and killed every last one of them. (I am not a dog lover, and I was less of a dog lover after that incident!)

Kevin kindly ran out and bought some 10 week old pullets the very day of the Great Chicken Massacre.  They didn't lay for a while, but grew up and became wonderful producers. We bought 20, 1 died of natural causes, and the others laid eggs until last fall.

Well, at that point the egg production started dropping.  Our chickens were getting old and since winter was approaching, we suspected their winter production would be poor. So we packed them off to the butcher and soon they were dinner.  (Obviously, we don't allow for much sentimentality here about the chickens. They are not pets.)

For a while, the chicken coop stood empty. But we started yearning for chickens, and found a fairly local seller who had a bunch of breeds and types. So last fall, we bought 24 chickens from him. (We still had our guinea hen from the previous batch.  She had been quite lonely, poor thing.)

All seemed well for a few days. But the new chickens were sick.  Very sick. 

Bluntly, they've been a disappointment.  4 months later we are still getting a MAXIMUM of 5 eggs a day (and that is just once.)  We have 16 or 17 chickens left, as many died of the illness.

Our latest question is whether 2 of the "hens" are actually roosters.  Now, that's not a huge deal and indeed we think it is quite funny.  But really, we think we have a couple of roosters.  Now they are NOT crowing like roosters are supposed to.  But they sure LOOK like roosters.  They are bigger and have different looking tail feathers than the others.  Kevin saw one ... well, it was behaving in a way that lends oneself to think it is a rooster. But maybe it was a hen being dominant. 

Anyhoo, the amusing chicken disaster continues.  I mean, it doesn't matter THAT much, but it is humorous that we may have spent good money on 2 useless roosters.  (Ok, I realize roosters have their place but we don't want broody chickens hatching out eggs, so we don't need roosters.)

We are contemplating starting some chicks this spring. We'll see.  And I keep hoping maybe our chickens will pick up the pace and really start laying eggs.  But if we indeed have roosters than we have a maximum of 14 that can lay.