In early spring when the weather is still relatively cold, people are still wearing thick cotton clothes. However, those with experience in raising chickens are busy preparing for hatching chicks and raising early spring chickens.
Firstly, early spring chicks are easy to raise as long as the issue of warmth is addressed. Compared to other seasons, they face fewer problems like mosquito and fly infestations and disease outbreaks. If raised by older mother hens, the situation is even more ideal.
The second advantage is that since the weather warms up day by day since early spring, the chicks grow larger each day and the various green feed in the fields begins to grow. Particularly, the chicks love chickweed, which is rich in vitamins and serves as excellent feed for their growth.
However, the most important point lies in the high economic value of early spring chickens. Chicks hatched in early March, for instance, can mostly start laying eggs by September. These chickens can continue laying eggs through the winter and into the following autumn before molting, effectively laying eggs for a whole year. On the other hand, chicks hatched in May will face different circumstances. Although they can theoretically start laying eggs by the age of 7 months, they will encounter the cold winter of December. Without special measures to keep warm, their egg production may be delayed until the following spring months of March or April. Such chickens might only lay eggs for about 8 months at most, and like early spring chickens, they will molt and stop laying eggs in autumn, resulting in about a quarter less eggs compared to early spring chickens.
Of course, if we manage to address the warmth issue and raise chicks even earlier, hatching them in January or February, they could produce even more eggs.