Can you stretch out a hen's laying years?

[Cindy in PA]

You can probably get them to lay longer without lighting in the winter. This simply means you will get less eggs per year for a longer # of years, perhaps. Even if you add light, you will get less egss per year in each successive year. If you are merely keeping chickens a s pets, this will be fine for you. I prefer not to feed chickens that don't lay eggs so I use light & get the maximum # per year that they are bred to produce. Even with adding light I once had a barred rock that lived over 8 years & laid about 3 eggs/week until the end. Feed is too expensive for me to not have hens laying year round. It's up to you how you want to raise your hens. I don't think longevity is built in to most hatchery hens.

 

[BethanyS]

wo

I read on a thread only this morning that Buff Orpingtons hold the longest laying record at 19 years.  I would imagine at that age its only a few eggs a year.

I looked for the thread but couldn't find it again. 

wow!

 

[sunflour]

I read on a thread only this morning that Buff Orpingtons hold the longest laying record at 19 years. I would imagine at that age its only a few eggs a year.

I looked for the thread but couldn't find it again.

WOW, 19 years! I have a BO that keeps going broody, maybe she is saving hers for old age "nest eggs" ?

 

[tcstoehr]

You can probably get them to lay longer without lighting in the winter. This simply means you will get less eggs per year for a longer # of years, perhaps. Even if you add light, you will get less egss per year in each successive year.

This seems like an intuitive thing but I wondered if it has any basis in fact. The best information I could find is here:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/supplemental-light-in-coop-why-how.html

This comes from a practicing hen veterinarian whose full time job is looking after chickens. After reading what he has to say it seems that additional winter lighter neither reduces egg laying in any subsequent year nor does it shorten the egg-laying career of the chicken. They will never run out of eggs as they are born with not thousands but hundreds of thousands of egg cells and it is only old age and declining vigor that will reduce the egg laying frequency.

 

[Cindy in PA]

This seems like an intuitive thing but I wondered if it has any basis in fact. The best information I could find is here:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/supplemental-light-in-coop-why-how.html

This comes from a practicing hen veterinarian whose full time job is looking after chickens. After reading what he has to say it seems that additional winter lighter neither reduces egg laying in any subsequent year nor does it shorten the egg-laying career of the chicken. They will never run out of eggs as they are born with not thousands but hundreds of thousands of egg cells and it is only old age and declining vigor that will reduce the egg laying frequency.

Yea, that's what I figure, but no one can say for sure if a chicken will run out of eggs, so I tone down MY opinion! Humans don't run out, so I doubt chickens would, but you will still get progressively less eggs every year. I light my coop for the two years I keep my chickens, as I do not keep pets anymore.