Chickens and eggs

About two years ago I desided I wanted Fresh eggs for baking.........I went to a feed store and a gentleman was there that raised chickens ....well, he talked me into buying 6 hens.....

Then, I had to talk my hubby into building me a chicken coop....that took weeks..

The chicken man showed up with my chickens and he also brought a rooster....the most beautiful white rooster...and nice hens..
Well after 3 months the hens started laying eggs.....I was so excited to have fresh eggs.....they laid about 6 eggs a week, for a while then stopped....
I thought it was because of the cold weather, however it wasn't....turned out that the rooster was raping my hens...for about 4 days everytime I went out to the chicken coop, blood was all over....
I couldn't get a hold of the chicken man because he was showing chickens out of state.....
My hubby talked to a guy he works with, that his sister had a farm and would take the chickens.....
Well, Fred only made it to the next day.....he was trying to kill all of the chickens and going after the farmers roosters too ....Fred was Sunday dinner....I was crushed........

In the spring I was at the feed store again........The store had tubs of baby chicks...I bought 4....that was a Friday...on Saturday my hubby and I went back to the feed store for supplies.....we got 4 more chicks....
Monday I had to go to pay my insurance...having to drive by the feed store to get to my agents office, lol I stopped and got 2 more......called my hubby and he said you should have gotten 4 instead then I would have 12......... well on the way back....having to go by the feed store on my way home....Yup, you guessed it I now have 12 baby chicks......
I would like to say I didn't know anything chickens lol let alone baby chicks.........From the things I read it would take a while for them to grow (and they did, I didn't lose any of them) and I was excepting about 1 egg per chicken every other day......nice i would have a couple dozen......lol.......they leave me between 11 and 12 eggs a day (sometimes one of the hens takes a day of rest) I BAKE A LOT NOW LOL .........I do have neighbors and friends that get the eggs and I have even freecycled them......
The girls (no rooster) are feed layer pellet everyday....in the mornings when I go out to get the eggs I feed them chicken scratch as a treat and when they are being taking care for the night I cut up apples and they have that for a treat before going down for the night (I call them my apple annies).
If you have a few mins. a day and can have chickens in your backyard get a couple chicks, have fun and even get a few eggs for breakfast and baking...Chickens are very fun to raise..............