wow - I think that these are very high expectations, and while you may get a few to live that long (I have never even come close) Patandchickens is right, there are going to be a lot more that will die much younger. The cross bred or hybrid birds for producing eggs, I find often die between 3-4 years of age, but most die between 2-3 years.
I do feed mine well, and they do free range quite a bit. Maybe if I kept them totally penned up, they would do better.
I just don't want people feeling horrible when their birds die at an earlier age than 8 years and feel like a failure. Some, really quite a few don't live all that long. Those really long lived birds are more of an exception, at least with hatchery birds. Perhaps high quality birds and no predators, you can get longer lives, but I wonder.
Mrs K
I do feed mine well, and they do free range quite a bit. Maybe if I kept them totally penned up, they would do better.
I just don't want people feeling horrible when their birds die at an earlier age than 8 years and feel like a failure. Some, really quite a few don't live all that long. Those really long lived birds are more of an exception, at least with hatchery birds. Perhaps high quality birds and no predators, you can get longer lives, but I wonder.
Mrs K
