There is a whole lotta fen-hucking going on these days. We are getting 2 dozen eggs a day and the roosters want em all to be fertile. As a result, the hens can get bare back. The “chicken saddles” as they are called, help to keep the chance for infection down and allows the feathers to grow back.
JAZ Farm Blog 
You know you don’t “need” the roosters around unless you plan on hatching replacments. Glad to see things are going well. We just finished our coop yesterday and transferred the now 5 week old cluckers inside.
Of course. But we are going to hatch our own. Hence the roosters. We had three and then a mystery bird we thought to be a she was a he. Now we have four. One isn’t the right breed although is very nice and one of the Orpingtons is a giant pain. Never stops crowing. Both have volunteered to be stew. As the hens age they will be moved out and younger ones will take their place. Rather than relying on a hatchery to ship them to the boonies here, hatching them will allow us to have as many or as few as we want.
We are finishing a second section of the coop for broilers. They will arrive the later part of April. A pig pen is in the works as well.
Glad to hear your coop is up and running. It is such a thrill when you get your first eggs! They will be tiny at first but now ours are regular size…. and almost orange yolked, and very tasty!
What are you going to run for broilers? We’re going with black rangers. They take a couple weeks more, but we just can’t bring ourselves to go with the cornish cross because they look like mutants and can’t even support their own weight after 9 weeks.
We just ordered a Brinsea incubator for future use. I hope at some point to use something like Red Rangers and be able to hatch my own. Because we are up against a clock with the organic garden, this year will be CXs but will likely be the only time we use them. The 1000 seedlings in the grow room are being very demanding. Once things settle down I hope to have the whole flock from our own breed stock. Also, we are getting a pen together for a couple of feeder pigs each year.