Is it advisible to eat your layers after they quit laying?

[CockadoodleMimi]

How long will layers lay? Roughly, how old are they when they tire out and stop laying? What do you do with them when they retire?

 

[Chick Charm]

Chickens differ when the stop producing eggs. Decline in good layers can be seen by 3 yrs. Some hens will still produce at 5 yrs old. There are stated layers on this forum even 8 yrs old. I use the gauge that I have personally seen in my hens and somewhere after second molt I notice decline in production.

What you do with them is up to you. I usually do not keep most of my hens after 3 yrs. Personally I put em in a crock pot or give them to friends.

Wish you the best.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

We keep heritage birds to their third fall, and production birds to their second fall.

We then sell them cheap on Craigslist.

 

[Jackandwhitey]

My Amish neighbors are glad to get my old hens. They can (process) them.

 

[AParmer]

It's funny you should ask about eating them after they are done laying. I'm in the process of reading a book called Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow and I just covered this very topic. I will quote a few sentences from the book.

"After a few years, all layers become "spent," meaning they slow down in production. At that point, they don't have much meat on their bones, since their energy has been concentrated on laying. A good layer fleshes out slowly, so it never would have made a good meat bird in the first place. If you're interested in chicken barbeque, consider a meat breed."

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[bobbi-j]

No, layers are not built like "meat birds", but they do make good canned chicken! That's what we do with ours. We bone out the carcass, then pressure-can the meat. It's good, tender, and very flavorful. You can make chicken soup, chicken stew, chicken salad, warm the canned chicken and pour it over rice or potatoes... the possibilities are endless.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Eating them is definitely an option, but I'm always reminded of the fact that my father hated chicken for the first 15 years of his life--until he was old enough to go on trips off the farm and taste meat-breed chickens in a restaurant. He never knew that chicken could taste good or not be chewy until then. Honor the bird, yes--but why force yourself to eat something nasty, especially if you have to do all the work to process it in the first place? Yes, I know some people like the taste of spent layer. I am not one of them.

Lots of people are happy to get spent layers for $3-$5, depending on breed. I do believe that most go to backyard flocks. I'm sure some go for eating. This is a question I don't ask.

 

[bobbi-j]

Quote: It's all a matter of opinion. It doesn't have to be nasty or chewy. It just requires patience. As far as going to all the work to process the bird, if you are experienced in it, it really doesn't take that much work. Time, yes. It can be time-consuming, but oh, so worth it when you're in a hurry to get a meal prepared and you can just pull a jar of yummy canned chicken off the shelf. (Really not trying to be argumentative here, just sharing another viewpoint)

Obviously, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Personally, I'd rather make my own canned chicken to have on hand than spend 2-5 or more years raising, feeding, and caring for a bird only to sell it or give it away for little or nothing. WOS, if I lived closer to you, I'd be happy to take those nasty, chewy chickens off your hands and go to all that work processing them!

 

[cary 1973]

I think it all depends on you and what your birds are to you. for me my girls are my pets first, egg layers second and meals never unless its the end of the world and I have no other food source. If you want to eat them there have been many good suggestions on here what to do or give them to some one who wants to eat them. For me my girls will be with me for the rest of there life or mine what ever comes first. If I go first they are in my will and my cuz will be taking care of them for me.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Quote: I know this is true--which is why I said that I know some people like the taste of spent layer. I've also processed birds, but to me it's a lot more than just time-consuming. It's hot and stressful and dirty and bloody and time consuming. I've put my foot down and won't process any more birds unless the revolution comes and the grocery stores aren't open.

I'm also not a person that likes canned meat. <shudder> To each their own. Funny story: we lived in a very rural area of Western Ohio for several years, and my husband's boss bought us a canned meat assortment for Christmas. A big case of cans, each with a different animal on the label. I did try. I made chicken and biscuits, and a beef pot-pie. <shudder> There were... things in the beef. We're talking smooth, round things with strands coming off them... perhaps lymph nodes? We gave the cans to the local food pantry.

We do raise meat birds--but nice, meaty, 6-lb broilers and some cockerels from our hatches fed high-protein feed and slaughtered at 12-14 weeks by a wonderful USDA-inspected processor that charges $1.80/bird. But I've never had a problem selling an aged layer for $3-5 each, so we do that.