Rain Showers bring Spring Chicks?

Egg production has ramped up on the farm and this also means the number of broody hens on the farm quadrupled. I like to raise a variety of heritage breeds on the farm. This means that they are older domesticated breeds, typically good dual-purpose birds, they tend to be much hardier than several of your production rate chickens. One problem is that they like to hoard their eggs and hatch out chicks.

At the moment, I have 7 broody hens on the farm. We also have been having extra eggs, since the market has not started the summer season yet, so I also have the incubators going. This means we are up to our eyeballs in chicks!

We usually keep a few as replacements and sell off the rest. We do have Tractor Supply in town that is in full swing for their "chick days", because of this we have several people who do not want to pay for our chicks. On average, I charge $2-$3 per chick for not sexed, while at Tractor Supply you can get them for $1-$2. The difference being, ours are generally hardier than the feed store chicks. Because of this, our selling rate for chicks is down, but I am usually still able to sell pullets (older female chicks) and hens.