Only a couple of weeks after the chicks, found in the chicken coop, are hatched and they are starting to grow their new feathers. For a while, it’s hard to distinguish which chicks are male and which are female. But after sometime, the comb and wattle will grow bigger on the males and the hen will stay smaller.
Young hens are called pullets. Pullets are mostly for egg-laying. They will start to lay eggs at five months but can’t start laying fertile eggs until a year old. Chickens lay most of their eggs their first year. Then a little less their second year. And so on.
If a chicken wasn’t killed for meat and was treated okay, the chicken could live up to 12 years. Think about how many eggs that would be in all.