Egg laying, two years?

[Kansaseq]

Quote:
Is that from a magazine or newspaper?

 

[bmelanco]

Quote:
They will some eggs as long as you keep them. The longer you keep them the less they will lay (after 2-3 years that is). There is no old hen resuce organization - that is silly. Maybe you should have thought of this before you got chickens as a "pets". Chikens lay food and are food. Make soup.

 

[Kansaseq]

Quote:
Everyone is different. Some people have a few favorites who can grow old and it doesn't matter if they never lay an egg again; they are pets and have a home for life. Other people will sell them off or give old hens away to someone who doesn't care if they don't lay quite as well as before. Others still will simply cull and make soup.
I had a hen that had gotten to be about 4 years old. She was a pretty blue EE, and she continued to lay about 4 eggs a week for me, before a predator got her. It didn't matter to me that she didn't lay as well; I just liked her.
It's really up to you what you choose to do with your older girls, if they are lucky enough to make it to senior citizenship.

 

[fiberart57]

Hello Henney and GALEX (Welcome),

I have the same worries that you do - so badly in fact I was ready to sell my girls, who I raised from babies, because I didn't want to have to deal with the situations that might arise. I figured to find someone else who will have to deal with the problems that arise from older birds.

But I didn't, in the end, and I'm working on taking things as they happen. My girls are about nine months old, they're healthy and laying well and I'm going to learn to just stop worrying about it. I'm a worrier by nature and the thought of having to cull a bird or deal with them when they're old was keeping me awake at night.

I don't know what I'm going to do in the future with them but I'll deal with it when I get there.

Good luck. Have fun and enjoy them while you have them. I know just what you're going through.

Mary

 

[steveo]

My original chickens are about 3 years old and egg production has been down for a while now. I saw this coming so I got a new flock in a separate coop from my original flock. I processed my meat chickens, kill deer and sent the pigs to the butcher. For some reason I think I am going to have to rehome my old egg layers, I just don't want to eat them. This is odd for me because I should just eat them.

 

[speckledhen]

I have several four-year-old hens and some three year old hens who still lay several eggs each week.