pullet

The reasons for an untimely death at the hatchery could be the misfortune of being hatched a "roo" instead of a pullet, having a visible illness or developmental irregularity or simply being born in a cohort of too many chicks.

Pro tip: It begins with a six-pound kosher pullet, a hen less than a year old.

The new cases mean that across the nation, farmers have had to kill about 22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys.

Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply, the kind of place where you can buy a 12-gauge shotgun or a $999.99 rifle scope, a Sig Sauer, a Beretta, sacks of feed or New Hampshire Red pullet chicks for $3.49 each.

Raising antibiotic-free birds ”forces us to go back to the basics and get things right from the start to the finish, from pullet flocks to broilers,” and that almost requires relearning chicken husbandry, Tabler said.