At what age does egg production drop?

[la dee da]

Quote:
I'm not really concerned this will happen, chicken is my #1 favorite food product (better then ice cream, chocolate, steak, candy, popcorn etc.). If I can't seem to bring myself to eat my home-raised chickens, then I'll just buy from the store again (which I do NOT want to do...once I get the chicken thing started) or find another BYC keeper to buy them from. It will be a while until I get chickens, but I have full confidence in my ability to eat my home-grown chickens. Thanks for your warning

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[TillinWithMyPeeps]

Do hens ever stop laying completely? If I had four hens, do you think I would get at least an egg a day for their entire natural life? If not, would they lay at all in their late life?

 

[dancingbear]

Andy, hens do stop altogether at some point. I haven't ever had a hen long enough to find out exactly how long they might lay, though. I did once have an old red hen of unknown breed, who died in the nest, apparently while laying an egg, and she'd been laying about 5 huge brown eggs a week when she died. She was at least 5 years old, but I'm not sure exactly, could have been older. I have a BO hen that I thought had stopped, but now I'm thinking she's laying. I saw her get mated a few times lately. And, one of the young hens from last spring looks like her, except for a little black on the tail. I don't have any other hens (or roos) that are solid buff, any other mom would have passed along more black feathering, at least. She and a few others, I think are between 5 and 7 years old.

How often any individual hen may lay will vary greatly, with breed, diet, and environment.

La dee da, as to what to do with hens who have names....most of ours don't have names, but a few do. The ones with real names, (rather than just identifying designations, such as "Black Rooster," as in "Black Rooster's going to the freezer soon...") like Rita, Thelma & Louise, Alice, Sylvia, and Little Chicken, are on the Old Chicken Retirement Plan. They've got free passes for life. Being free-range birds, when they get slower as they age, they usually don't last too long, either a predator gets them, or they meet with misadventure. Or like Old Red Hen, they just die.