The Pullets are starting to Produce

A pullet is a young hen usually less than a year old.  Generally, each year we purchase a batch of new chicks to replace some of our older hens.  We keep them in a brooder in the garage and then move them out to the pasture at about 3 - 4 weeks or until the smell in the garage becomes unbearable, whichever comes first!
We have a chicken tractor out on the pasture that has around 22 Barred Rock Pullets in it that i push to fresh grass each day so they have new grass to eat on and also so they can distribute their fertilizer across the pasture.

Here is a picture that I took back on May 1st when I moved them out of the brooder and into a chicken tractor on fresh grass.  They are all huddled up and don't know exactly what to do on this green stuff as they had been on hay or wood shavings in the brooder for the first several weeks of their lives.

Where the green grass grows

Fast forward 5 months and here are those same girls today - all grown up.  I think they are pretty birds. These are Barred Rocks, one of the varieties within the Plymouth Rock Breed.  They are brown egg layers, but are also a dual-purpose bird, and are used for meat as well.

Barred Rock Pullets

My normal operation of raising these birds involves keeping them in the chicken tractor until they begin to lay eggs.  While they are small, I want to give them a fighting chance against predators.  We have a lot of hawks and owls around and a "bite-size" Barred Rock is a little too tempting.  Once they begin to lay, I open the door to the chicken tractor and allow them to free range all day long on three acres.  At night they return to roost on the roosting bars in the tractor shown above.  They've had limited freedom up to this point, but now they are going to really experience Freedom of Movement and Freedom of Association with the other critters on the farm.  Before I open the door, I'll trim one of their wings back so that they won't fly out of the perimeter fence on our property.  I'll also put a colored band around one of their legs to identify their age compared to the existing flock that is free-ranging.

The information I have states that they begin to lay eggs between 21 and 24 weeks.  Just like clockwork, the girls have started laying their first eggs.  I call them "pullet bullets."  You can see the girls' little eggs that Benjamin found in their nesting box.  They are perfectly good eating, albeit a little small, but it won't take long before they are normal sized eggs.

Pullet Bullets

The picture below shows the relative difference in size of a Barred Rock hen that has been laying for a couple of years (on the left) and on of the pullet eggs (on the right).

Size difference

The pullet eggs don't have as rich of a color as the others.  I assume that is because in the tractor they are somewhat limited in their diet, whereas the hens free-ranging can forage around 3 acres for whatever looks good to them on the 'buffet line.'

As soon as I have time this weekend, I'll try to set the pullets free.  They'll be happy birds!