how to tell the age of a chicken?

Quote:
That's the father in northern Idaho, right? See, there are some old guys in that part of the world that know something and then there's me . . . but I got this here drawing :

oh my god, shut up! Yes, darlin, that's my Dad in Idaho. He prides himself on knowing his chickens.... You're awesome! He told me some story about being a prize winning chicken judge in high school - it was all over my head, but look at that - he knows what he's talking about!

cheers and happy new year!!

Another common and fairly accurate way is to inspect the vent, this method will not tell you their age in months but will help with their egg laying ability. Just inspect the vent of the hen if it is pink and moist the hen is still a good young layer, if the vent is whitish and dry the hen is older and probably not laying aften or well. I have used this method and it does work pretty good.

AL

''If the pullet is just starting to lay, you will be able to place one finger in between these pelvic bones. This space will widen even further as the laying process increases, until eventually you will be able to place two or more fingers between the pelvic bones.''

And I guess if they're pretty wide it shows they are mature, but couldn't find much on decent ways to accurately determine age.
I was googling this myself (when I came across your post) as I bought 2 hens for £2 each about a month ago, they were in a horrible barn with about 1,000 others, the lady said they were about 10 months old. They have been laying since I got them but I'm thinking of incubating the eggs and wanted to know age to see if they'd be good enough. The lady seemed nice enough, but I don't know how well I can trust a stranger who keeps animals in such poor conditions, no matter how friendly they seem, grrr

The hens are happy in my massive garden now, pecking away on the lawn in the sunshine

How can I tell the age of A chicken ? Also What can I feed or not feed Chickens?

Ken Cooke said:

How can I tell the age of A chicken ? Also What can I feed or not feed Chickens?

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you can't really tell the age of a chicken, but like I wrote above, there are signs to determine how mature they are.
Their habits/attitude, size, facial redness (very pink or red if sexually mature) comb/wattle size and colouration (depending on what breed it is) quality and regularity of egg production.

You can feed chickens pretty much anything, in that, not much is POISONOUS to them. But things best to stay away from are:


High in fat, sugar or salt foods: chips, fries, processed meat, desserts/pudding leftovers, other sweets...HIGH SUGAR OR SALT IS LETHAL TO CHICKS
Raw meat or big quantities of cooked meat (as this can be high in bacteria and can get stuck or begin to rot in their crop or gut)
Meat/fish with broken or fine bones in (obvious choking hazard)
Chocolate is not good
ANYTHING REALLY THAT ISN'T PARTICULARLY HEALTHY TO A HUMAN IS NOT IDEAL FOR YOUR CHICKENS...

Awesome food for chickens:
Layer pellet designed for the chickens you have, which has all that they need to lay eggs and not put nutritional strain on their bodies, e.g calcium for making the shells.
Vegetable scraps such as carrots, peas/beans, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, GRASS CUTTINGS, my chickens love very mushy bruised bananas (THEY WON'T TOUCH CITRUS OR RAW POTATO) cooked veg scraps incl potato, cooked rice (as long as it's totally absorbed all the water) chopped up cooked egg (remove shell to discourage association with food and their own eggs).
Wholemeal or seeded bread they LOVE, avoid white bread in large amounts.
They love seeds, nuts, cereals, meal worms, woodlice, earth worms, slugs...(they don't eat the outside of slimy slugs but will pierce and eat insides )
Tinned tuna, other fresh oily fish is brilliant for them, but make sure all bones have been removed.

A couple tsp of cider vinegar in their water bowl changes the acidity in their gut and keeps internal worms at bay.

A part from that, lots of kisses and cuddles, chatting and tasty rewards
All the best.x