Our laying flock is mixed. We have some purebred chickens and some mutts. Some years we hatch our own. Other years we buy chicks from other farms we trust. We also buy day olds and ready-to-lays from Freys and Mill Pond.

One of the things you learn in your second or third year of keeping a small laying flock is that you need to maintain your flock each year. We rotate out some of our oldest birds and add new birds each year. We identify the different groups in our flock with one or more nylon ties on their legs. This year’s RTLs have a black band on their left leg.