Fresh chicks

Sometimes visitors to the farm ask isn't it too late in the year to be hatching chicks? I didn't hatch them, my chickens are free, comepletely free to live as chickens want to live, so if they hatch chicks in the winter that is their instinct. If you want fresh eggs year round you need a new crop of pullets. The only rule is they have to stay out of my garden during the growing months and I remove all the extra roosters to prevent my hens from getting pecked to death. They have many acres to scratch in and roam, are pretty warry of the hawks and varmints, and the pyrenees and maremmas are on guard duty. The cuckoo marran's aren't usually good setters, most of the time a game hen will set her eggs, but this cuckoo did a good job hatching, hope she's as aggressive as the games at protection of her chicks.