A chicken must be about 7 months old to lay eggs. Best bet is to go to a livestock auction site, that has weekly auctions. They usually take a break in the middle of the auction of large animals(pigs,cattle,cows--whatever was brought into the auction barn) and auction small animals off(rabbits ducks chickens,guinea fowel, geese etc). The last time I bought chickens at the auction I paid $1 each for 6, took them home to my barn and the next morning collected 4 eggs. You can't raise a chicken for $1,better to buy them ready to produce eggs. The heavy body birds lay bigger eggs. When my kids were young, we raised 100 chickens from baby chicks every year (90 for the freezer and 10 to keep for eggs). Cornish cross was the breed, the eggs were brown and so large one couldnot close an egg carton filled with them. Other good breeds are rhode island reds, plymouth rocks. Dont buy bannys theyll fly over any fence unless you clip their wings-produce small eggs and dont produce much meat.
