Our flocks are kept for two laying cycles, two years. After that we offer them to our members as soup chickens. We have some birds that are due to go to the hen house in the sky soon. On Friday night we sorted the chickens by removing the birds which will continue to lay for another year. These came into lay in June so they have more eggs to lay this winter and will take a break in the spring before laying once more during the summer and fall. The rest of the chickens, some 1320 before the Dixon chicken shooters and thieves moved in, will go for stock in a couple of weeks. We will count these birds when we load them into crates for their last journey. The first flock that will produce another year was originally 350 when we put them in their laying house in May. We counted 161 this evening. We do not know how many times the thieves came, it seems much more than we first thought. So we have lost just under 200 birds from this flock alone. We will be seeking financial recompense from the parents of the shooters. They were also not in a good condition, it appears that they have gone into a premature molt due to the stress of the shooting. They will be moved in with the other chickens that are staying to lay and we hope that they recover soon... Nigel