Molting Hens

 When a hen reaches about 18 months old, she will shut down egg production for a month or two, and sometimes up to 4 or 5, while her body replaces her old feathers with new. Having a hatching and butchering program is the way to avoid long spells of few or no eggs.

                                                        These hens are just beginning to molt. Time for the freezer.

I set 18 eggs on the 25^th of January, which will hatch around the 15^th of February, 36 eggs on the

25^th of March, the bulk of the flock, and another 18 on September 25^th, which hatch out in the middle of April and October, respectively. When these hens reach 6 months old they begin to produce eggs while the previous years hatch is beginning to molt and shut down production. This is the time to butcher the older hens. This is done at 18 months for all three yearly hatches. Don't worry if your April replacements haven't started laying yet when their older counterparts have begun to molt, your February and October hatches will be producing during this time.

Using this system ensures that I have eggs year round and chicken in the freezer. I'm sure there's a million programs out there, but this one works for me.