baby chicks

Some years ago when the first of our little flock of chickens came to live with us I was very excited even as I was kind of anxious at my lack of practical chicken knowledge. The three hens were beautiful Australorps who had just begun to lay eggs. They had previously been watched over by the neighbor of a friend of mine who had taken on the task of finding the three hens a new home because the neighbor who had kept them was fighting cancer.
I knew very little about chickens but was willing to learn, as was my husband. We enjoyed watching them interact with one another and behave as chickens behave. As time when on the hens became pets as well as egg providers and we gave them the run of the yard.  I never feel good about animals who are trapped in cages and trying constantly to get out. Our first coop was a refurbished garage that my friend said gave the hens about 30 times as much space as they had had before. Nonetheless they were always pecking around the edges so becoming yard chickens was the logical next step.
Zoning laws prevented us from having a rooster even if we had wanted one, which we didn't but only because it didn't seem practical. I think back now to how little I knew about domesticated birds, how little I even thought about how it was that we could have three hens and no roosters. It wasn't until I began to transition to a larger awareness of animals, earth and climate that I realized how unnatural it was to have only hens; like having only cows, or sows, or does.
The domestication of animals has made keeping male animals impractical except where neutering or breeding is practiced, and then only one male is needed or access to a sperm bank. Male chicks are generally killed right after hatching or perhaps after a few months if they are raised to eat. Which is why the numbers of male to female chickens is so unnatural. I just never gave it all much thought. Female animals on the other hand are kept in larger numbers and for long term due to their reproductive capacities, that is for milk and for eggs as well as for the next generation of kept animals. 
I know that our hens seem livelier, and more content when there are new pullets around to get into shape. Pullets are 4-6 month old hens not quite ready, or just beginning to lay eggs but old enough to live outdoors away from the protected environment of a hatchery. Older hens get right to the task of hen pecking and herding and letting the younger ones know just how domesticated hen society works. It is sometimes frustrating to watch. Occasionally we have stepped in to isolate a hen that is getting carried away with fierce parenting!   But having watched the process several times now, I know that the hens eventually shape a flock that works well together.
The younger chickens keep the older ones on their toes and seem to give them a purpose that they don't have without chicks of their own. I feel sad that they can't hatch their own but not only is having a rooster not permitted by zoning laws, if we had a nest of chicks we would be obligated to do something with the male chicks: either kill them or give them away to people who might kill them anyway. It is easier for us not to have to deal with that.
Today we were picking up corn and grit for the hens at the farm store when I walked by the baby chicks that were for sale.  I used to just think that they were so cute and fuzzy. Now I think they are cute and fuzzy, but I also think, "Where are their brothers?" and "I bet they miss their mother hen". Having domesticated birds is a responsibility. I want them to have a good life but I am also abundantly aware that just by having them, I am participating in an industry that prevents them from growing and living as they were created to do.