Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Ridgerunner]

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Your getting phylosophical here so all I can do is offer my opinion. Chickens are not wild animals. They are domesticated. Domesticated animals are not natural. They can go feral, like many domesticated animals, but we don't keep them in their "natural" environment. We manage them for our benefit.

If you want to add light and get the eggs out of them early, go for it. They are yours. If you want to eat them, eat them. If you want to let them live out their lives, that is up to you. Manage them any way you want. Just realize the different ways you manage them will have effects.

 

[Beekissed]

If you want to add light and get the eggs out of them early, go for it. They are yours. If you want to eat them, eat them. If you want to let them live out their lives, that is up to you. Manage them any way you want. Just realize the different ways you manage them will have effects.

Excellent observation, RR, particular the line emboldened in this quote.

A few posts back someone asked if anyone feeds their roos layer rations. I do and always have with no ill effects.

Tres Amigas, I am so glad you are enjoying this thread and getting information you can use. Folks like you are the reason this thread was initiated ...there seems to be so much confusion on this forum and so many problems that repeat themselves for people.

I felt it best to question and resource those people on here who have been doing this chicken raising thing for a long time and have figured out how to keep the birds alive, healthy and producing and see what their methods were.

If they can do it for that long, then someone else can achieve it also....without all the complications, confusion and stress involved with debating every simple little thing.​

 

[galanie]

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All I can say is that the lights are artificial plus they were not set up by nature to lay an egg a day for months on end, which the artificial light is supposed to help them do. But really, everyone does what they want with their chickens. I mean if you only want them for all the eggs you can get then why not do that? I think it's a judgement call only you can make for your own chickens. In saying "you" mean everyone and their chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

For some people, their chickens are a business and they own them to gain a profit...and that is certainly alright. Anyone who has ever benefited from commercially produced foods at any time in their lives should understand this. There are OTs on here who raise chickens for profit and there is nothing wrong with that at all...I'm sure they all do it with humanity and deliberation.

It's just not profitable to keep 100 layers, with customers relying on your product, and NOT provide lighting to get the maximum lay in the shortest amount of time. Any drop in egg production for this individual is going to eat into profits and they will soon lose good faith with their customers if they cannot create a steady supply.

For us backyard owners who run smaller flocks of 30 or below, getting high egg yields are just not as crucial but still vital if you are trying to sell eggs to defray the cost of feed. There are a few ways to approach this problem. You can buy breeds known for high and short lived production and then kill them all and start fresh every two years with point of lay hens you have purchased, or incubate and grow out new chicks to coincide with your culling of the first flock.

Or you can buy breeds known for great production and longevity of lay that will reproduce their own progeny~because your customer base isn't as dependent upon the product. Either way is still individual to a person's needs. Since I don't NEED to have a high volume of eggs all winter long, I prefer to let my girls rest and start again in the spring. I still get eggs and enough to keep some of my customers in eggs, but not all.

I don't have the room or acreage to support two separate flocks in order that one can replace the other, so I must nurture my one flock well enough that they will replace their numbers slowly. As individual numbers are culled there is a constant ebb... and then flow of new layers replacing the older, spent hens. I like the natural rhythm of this kind of husbandry and I get to know my flock over time rather than getting to know a new set of birds every two years or so. It suits my style.

Everyone's style is different here and that, too, is just fine. I think the core management skills are basically the same....fresh air, fresh water, good foods, good husbandry.

 

[flagirl]

love this thread. have 11 hens from a friend-7 RIR 2 BO and now just figured out that the 2 blackwith red necks are sex-links-one is molting terribly and hope he does not always look like bee said! don't know how old the sex-links are, but when they stop laying-off they go. thank you for all this great info

 

[Clay Mudd]

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+1.


Wow, seems like I end up +1ing a lot of your posts lately...

 

[Beekissed]

I think that happens a lot on this thread....I really like you folks and your mindset. Practicality always wins out with me.

 

[Clay Mudd]

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It's kind of interesting that the "chickens as pets" movement and the "if you want decent chicken and eggs, you have to raise yor own" movement are growing at the same time. Makes for some... interesting discussions!

 

[Beekissed]

It sure does. What is really sad is that many think that this is a mutually exclusive concept...that you cannot have chickens for food and still name them, treat them kindly and give them a good, content life.

 

[RHRanch]

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X2 - And isn't that the best way to consume animal products (if you can), with integrity and by understanding that when you eat animal flesh, you are eating an individual and to know that you gave that animal the best life you could, and knowing that it did not have to be stressed, trucked, loaded and slaughtered impersonally in a large facility. People should respect those that raise their own birds for meat, and do so in a humane way, like the folks on this board. I don't eat chicken (or meat) much anymore, mostly because I don't like to eat animals when I don't know what their quality of life was or how they were fed. But I eat a heck of a lot of eggs, because they are from my birds, and I know how they live. Not all of them have names, but I am equally committed to the welfare and quality of life of each and every individual within my care.