It’s a questions that gets asked a lot and especially to egg farmers. People always want to see what the egg farmer thinks comes first, the chicken or the egg? I know there are some old farmers out there but they are not old enough to have hatched the very first egg and watch the chick peck its way out of the shell.

 Well on my family farm it is the chicken that comes first, then the eggs. We grow pullets (baby chicks) and also have egg laying hens on the farm. Pullets are what you call a laying hen before it reaches maturity at 19 weeks and begins to lay eggs.

 We receive the pullets or baby chicks from the hatchery on the same day they area hatched out of the incubator.  The barn is warm about at 90*F and very humid. As the chick grows we decrease the temperature and adjust their diet and environment to best suit them as they grow. It takes about 19 weeks or 5 months to a baby chicken to grow into a laying hen.

So if you ask me chicken or the egg, I will tell you the chicken comes to the farm first before she starts to lay eggs.