Raising Chickens for meat

Sorry Marty, I am no chicken expert. I bought 3 barred rocks that were already laying and the other hen was well a funny story..... in short we coming back from hunting driving down a gravel county road, see a heeler dog running along side the road with something in its mouth, curious I told Thomas "speed up" so we caught up to the dog, It was carrying a rooster! (or so I thought) The dog spits it out and takes off, the Rooster jumps up and across the road it runs, "Thomas go get that Rooster " I said, after I get the funny look he chases the rooster down. I inspect it to find it realy only has one injured spot on its back. Nobody within a mile has any chickens, So we take him home put him in a cage, the next morning I go out to find the Rooster done layed an egg. I was first thinking My daughter or Thomas done put that egg in there from the fridge and was messing with me! I did not get anymore eggs for two more weeks, but in the meantime I got a chicken coop built and bought the Barred rock hens, was given a huge Aracuna Rooster (A real Rooster) and "Rooster" my hen has since grown a realy long comb that falls over and covers half her eye. Everbody I tell my story too, thinks I must be an idiot until I show them the hen that looks like a rooster. She lays white eggs and the others lay brown eggs.
That is how i got back into having laying hens, I always had chickens running around the barns when I was growing up, but always had something killing the ones I tried to raise on my own before living out here.

Most times if I got a question I ask around at the feed store, them older folks usualy are full of practical information, then if that fails I ask Meemaw. I know they go through stages were they take brakes from laying, stress and so on will cause them to stop sometimes. One thing you can do is take fake eggs and put in the nest will help them get comfortable with laying in a certain spot. This seemed to help my girls get their pattern down.