Chickens are some of the most versatile animals around. They can be great pets, and they can also be a useful source of food.

This edition of the Happy Homestead talks about raising your own laying hens from hatching all the way up to full grown hens ...

Egg-laying hens are more time-consuming and expensive to produce. A hen will start laying eggs only after 21 to 24 weeks of age, which is three or four times the average lifespan of a broiler.

Looking at the average American egg farm, it is easy to see how these facilities become infectious disease factories. At the end of 2022, the U.S. had 308 million commercial egg-laying hens.

Those deaths have totaled over 166 million birds in the U.S. since 2022. Most birds killed are egg-laying chickens, and the death of so many hens is the main reason egg prices keep rising.