This is the first year that we've wholeheartedly experimented with chickens, and I learned a huge amount...as well as figuring out how much more we have to learn.  We began the year with four old hens and a rooster, ate the rooster when he started attacking me, progressed through four sets of chicks of varying breeds, and will go into winter with an entirely new flock of ten hens and one or two roosters.

In the process, I've started to wrap my mind about the best ways to incubate, brood, and pasture chickens.  I've consumed chicken-related books and websites, kept lots of notes on how the chickens acted on the ground, and generally pondered chickens at great length.  Be sure to check back at lunchtime for the next two weeks to read about my experiments!