Let’s start by defining terms:
- Chick: a chicken of either sex under 1 week old
- Pullet: a female chicken under 1 year
- Hen: a female chicken over 1 year
The question of whether to get chicks, pullets, or hens assumes that you want female birds. Since my goal is to produce manure for a small garden and eggs for two people, 3 to 6 hens are all that I need. Hens can certainly poop on their own and they produce eggs whether a rooster is present or not. In my situation, a rooster would introduce unnecessary complications by fertilising the eggs and fathering generations of chickens that I would have to rehome. I wanted to keep it simple.
Assuming you want females, let’s return to our question and the definitions above. What sets chicks, pullets, and hens apart are their ages, and each phase of development has its pros and cons. For example, chicks are readily available and come in a wide variety of breeds. Rhode Island Reds, Black Stars, Easter Eggers–your local feed store could have all of these and many more. The disease risk with chicks is lower because they have not been exposed to older chickens and the pathogens they harbour. The downside with chicks is that you have to have patience–it takes 16-20 weeks for them to mature.
If you want to reduce this lead time, pullets may be a good option because they are on the verge of laying eggs or already producing. The problem is that they are harder to source and more likely than chicks to carry disease. And, finally, if you need eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast, hens are a turn key solution. A 2-to-3 year old hen is at the height of her egg producing powers. It’s a small window and easy to miss, so when you purchase a hen, she could be at her peak or past her prime.
Considering all of this, I went to my local feed store and purchased 3 chicks.
