1/23 V.T. Kowalski Suzuki automobile Aurora, Illinois And I had to go killing the birds and see what they were doing to our hens. They just wouldn't stop. I was very tired of trying to keep them from eating all the eggs. We finally got a few chickens back into laying condition after about three weeks. We had been feeding them corn, wheat bran, and some oats mixed with ground barley. This seemed to help quite a bit. The first batch of chicks hatched on May 1st. There were twenty-four in all. They grew fast and healthy looking birds. They started laying eggs by July 4th. We had enough for our own use plus extras for sale. We sold some at local markets and got good prices. Our profit was quite small but we had fun doing it ourselves.