old hens

Hello everyone, I have two hens to rehome. Rosie is the brown one, she's about 6 years old and Ava is the black/white, she's almost 4. They are laying once in a while but it's been rare lately. When we bought our house, the previous owners left them. We learned and tried to take the best care...

My oldest hen, a 5 year old RIR, had started getting a dirty butt about 2 maybe 3 weeks ago. It was just a small streak of white at first. Looking back i should have rinsed it off then. I thought maybe shed clean it herself but no. It got worse. This morning i finally got out there and got her...

Hi! I have three three year old Rhode Island Red hens and I recently fell in love with a rooster that was free to take home at a fair. I’m wondering if it would be bad for my hens to bring home the rooster since I only have three and he is much younger than them. He’s a very gentle and big Isa...

Someone dropped three very feral roosters off at the end of my road. Animal control was able to catch two and take them to a no kill shelter, for three weeks no one was able to catch the remaining rooster. Today, I finally caught him. He is very scared and doesn’t want to be around humans but I...

Hello, I have a two-year-old black sex-link. Yesterday she started making greenish diarrhea and being hunched over. Here are some pictures: Any ideas? All of my older hens are in a slow attempt at molting and we just eliminated most of the rooster population a few weeks ago. Thanks! EOR...

First up we have Paisley, who is 3 years 10 months. She is a partridge rock. Next we have Lucy. She is the same age as Paisley. She is a Silver Laced Wyandotte We have one more hen we might be getting rid of but I won't be posting her here yet. We also have a gorgeous white Yokohama rooster...

So I'm wanting to hatch out eggs next spring from my hens, I have 3 that are going to be 3 years old, 10 hens that are gonna be 2 and 2 hens that are gonna be 1 1/2. My questions How fertile will they be? Would I have to give them high-quality feed prior to collecting eggs? What would be...

I am currently raising my second flock, 13 - 3 week old hens. I still have 3 Barred Rock 3yr old hens from first 10 hen flock left. They're healthy, friendly & spoiled rotten. However I need to build new coop & reconstruct new run for new flock.... I do not want to do the whole...

So I was wondering what could be some reasons chickens don’t lay eggs? I have a cool with 22 birds in it and only get about 5 eggs a day.... there is some older hens in the flock and 1 duck he's a boy so I know about 5 birds that aren’t laying eggs... But The other 17 should be laying more...

What do I do with the hens that haven't laid eggs for months... none through the summer and nothing today. I know for sure my White Leghorn is not laying, she is the only one I have in my flock of 18. We are only averaging 7 eggs a day for the past year. Does that mean that half my hens are...

I frequently see posts stating that chickens live to be 8-13 years old on average and up to 16-20! However, I rarely see information on caring for elderly hens. I had a pair of hens who turned 6 this spring and one creeping up on 7. They are all still laying, only late winter to late spring...

I got six chickens three years ago, two were male (even though they were all supposed to be female), and four were female. I gave the roosters away when they grew up and became mean to each other and pulled the hens feathers our. After about a year and one-half one hen turned a bucket over on...

I was wondering if anyone knew the best food for my ladies... I have several girls who are older (I’m talking 5 years) but are still laying semi-regularly... My problem is, even though the eggs are fine inside, the outside looks a little scary sometimes. Also, most of the eggs I get aren’t...

:drool ⁉️ I checked for eggs yesterday, none. I go out this morning and found five. What could have happened? I only have three hens! Can a hen lay more than one in less than (17) hours? I'm very confused⁉️⁉️⁉️

I have an old girl I took in knowing she would not be producing regularly, intended to make her my first experience at culling my flock. She is so sweet and friendly that I learned that I will not be able to cull my own hens when the time comes. The issue I have is she has laid in spurts...

Most of our flock is really old hens that aren't in lay. And although I feel awful about it, we need to cull some. My Grandmother says that thre is no point in feeding birds that don't do anything. We will be adding a rooster soon, off topic but do you have any suggestions/pros and cons between...

peppa is my 7 year old Wyandotte chicken. She has sat on eggs periodically throughout her life and has been a great mother hen for me. My question is how old would you stop a hen brooding and raising chicks? knowing that she is a a great sitter and she puts herself through hell to raise them I...

Hello. Recently, our chicken which we got around 5 years ago has been visibly ill. The thing is, we have no idea what is causing this illness or how to cure it. For the past two weeks, she has been having Diarrhoea/ a very watery substance, rarely solid at all. This lead to her having very mucky...

I hope this is the proper category for this particular topic. I have read a chicken could live up to 20 years in pristine conditions. Never would have believed it. Sounds a little absurd. Anyway, death and disease on a farm will desensitize you after awhile. You still have a small emotional...

if this has been answered, please direct me. I'm kind of embarrassed to ask, but just can't remember. I've been raising poultry for almost 40 years. I usually let my old hens live out their life naturally. As I've raised & processed meat birds. However my pantry is getting low I'm going to cull...