Chickens only good for 2 years?

[Clay Valley Farmer]

If your fiance is going to object to killing any kind of animal you may have a problem some day even if it is a hobby farm. Killing livestock is part of animal farming whether you do it or someone else does it.

Very good point.

If you go into it thinking this way vet bills will be killer, many many times the value of any eggs.

Hatching your own brings a problem in that you will end up with surplus roos. Getting someone to take a roo who won't be kiling it is not easy, finding good homes for several at a time is near impossible. Keeping them is often bad for the flock.

Replacing layers as need brings a risk too as new birds can bring disease. Once you have disease in the flock then selling surplus chickens should be pretty much out of the question.

Also from a practical stand point a chicken past prime quickly starts eating more food $ than it gives in return as egg $. Without recouping some of the meat $ in the chicken the flock and eggs get pretty expensive after a couple years.

Best I can think of is set the ground rules first, how many will you plan to keep, how will flock population be controlled, what is the vet service protocol, under what circumstances will chickens be culled or sold. Without some plan on managing the flock it is all to easy over time to get overrun with sick and non productive chickens.​

 

[OkieChickenDad]

I'm a bad chicken dad. I kept 2 chickens in a converted doghouse coop as "pets" for my daughter...now there is no way I would EVER kill a chicken. Gertrude and Blake will have a nice loving home till their days are done. Eggs are great, but I crossed the "pet" line...which isnt hard with a chicken that thinks its a dog, then its all over. You can farm, or keep chickens for meat or eggs, and if that is your goal...then dont cross the "pet" line and you wont have any issues. Killing, culling are part of livestcok management and vital to a healthy system...but you get near my baby girls and will be on you like a turken on a june bug...

 

[A.T. Hagan]

The two year thing is for how long birds can generally be expected to lay profitably as in lay more eggs than it costs to feed them. If you want working birds then look for the production breeds from reputable companies. Do right by them and they'll lay enough eggs to at least pay for the feed they eat those first two years. After that they don't stop laying. I've got four year old sex-links that are still laying and will probably continue to lay for at least another year or two. But they haven't laid enough eggs the last two years to pay for their feed. I'm keeping them for breeding.

Other birds such as the non-production breeds or strains from the commercial hatcheries and pretty much all show bred birds will never lay enough eggs even in their first two years to pay for the feed they eat. They are bred for other reasons which can be equally as valid, but they are different.

Now, whether any of that is important to you only you can decide. Once you've decided what you want from your birds you'll know which way to go.

 

[write2caroline]

I have a group of chickens that just passed their first birthdays. I could not imagine - offing them after another year! I have them for eggs and as pets and I am very attached to them. I would imagine that older hens still get broody and want to sit on eggs. We had one raise chicks this spring and it was a wonderful experience. None of the chicks were biologically hers and she was such a great Momma. I think that when people quote the two years they mean two years of predictable laying from when they start laying and it slackens off later. I would like to suggest if your total number of chickens will be limited that you restrain your initial order to 3 or 4 chicks and replace them as needed. Stuff happens. I lost one to being egg bound, another to a hawk, one freaked out and flew into the side of the coop and committed harry cary on herself. Stuff just happens unfortunately and having a smaller flock is easier to manage. You can increase gradually. Don't be like me and order 25 after already having 20 something. It is very easy to get caught up in the "addiction" of Chickenry and before long you have a lot to deal with. ...... Choosing chicks for the spring is a lot of fun so If you knew you were only ordering say 3- or 4 you could research and have a lot of fun choosing breeds. My Pet chicken lets you order in small quantities and you can also order just eggs for an incubator.

Chicken are also a lot of fun to watch. I can sit and watch them for hours and it is really relaxing.

Caroline

 

[welsummer4]

Chris,
I'm a vegan who keeps backyard chickens. Here's my logic: My fiance and son eat eggs every day, so as someone who cares about animal welfare, I got laying hens so that I can be comfortable with the eggs my family eats. The family is going to eat eggs either way, so I'd rather raise the chickens my self than have them eat battery eggs from the grocery store. It's actually a win-win, because I get some cool pets in the backyard (my chickens follow me around like puppies and greet me at the gate when I come home from work), and have an excuse to practice my carpentry skills building and maintaining their coop.

I'll keep my girls as long as they live, even when their production tapers off. I figure, four chickens at a fourth their current production rate will still give us an seven eggs a week, which is plenty. And the reality is, chickens die of natural causes or succumb to predators on a pretty regular basis, so as sad as it will be when this happens, I can add a fresh layer to the flock to keep egg production somewhat steady. Don't get me wrong, I take really good care of my chickens (even spent $400 on a wing amputation to save one) and they live in a very predator proof coop, so I don't anticipate losing any hens soon, but it will inevitably happen.

Maybe this will help you convince your fiance?

Good luck,
A.R.

 

[Echoinghills]

Quote:
Exactly what i was going to mention!! Some of us breeders also raise chickens for nice lawn ornaments (our pets!), bug/tick control is a sure plus! They also scratch the yard and snip grass... help cut the grass, fertilize the lawn, etc. There is so many other reasons to own chickens, turkey, peafowl, etc.... not just for eggs/food...but the eggs is sure nice! If you live in a damp area... i noticed when we first moved to our house, we had a problem with carpenter ants and earwigs. The chickens and guineas took care of that problem...they are no longer finding their way into my house. I am certain that the chickens wiped out whatever food source there was for those pests...and we never have a mole hill in our yard either. Chickens will eat the grubs/worms that moles love to eat...again, take away the food, and the critter disappears. We dont have ticks in our yard or on our animals anymore either...the birds pretty much stay right on top of that stuff.

 

[teach1rusl]

I didn't read all the way through, so I apologize if I'm repeating someone. For your fiance', eating eggs isn't eating a chick (aka killing something) or exploiting an animal IMO, because a hen is going to lay eggs whether she's in the wild somewhere or in my coop. That egg will either rot or be eaten by an animal. And a chick is only a possibility if you have a rooster for fertilization, so if there's no rooster, there's no killing involved.

As for incubating...the problem you will run into there (in your situation) is that 75% of your hatch could end up being roosters. Keeping a bunch of roosters around is generally asking for a lot of fighting. So even if you luck out and only have 25% of 12 eggs hatch out roosters, that's still too many roosters. So maybe you might want to buy sexed chicks or pullets from somebody.

Since chickens can lay for years, just not as frequently after the first 2-3 yrs., you might try starting with just a few hens, especially since there's just the two of you. Then, in 2-3 years, you can add just a few more. By your third cycle, you will probably have lost some of your originals... I wish you and your fiance luck on your decision...

 

[AZKat]

I second the suggestion to have your fiancee go out to see someone's backyard flock. There is a world of difference between battery hens and birds who are allowed to walk around, get plenty of fresh air, eat grass and bugs and generally act like chickens.

At the risk of getting philosophical, I think that it makes sense to look at the relationship between humans and chickens not as exploitative, but symbiotic. We give chickens shelter, a reliable supply of nutritious food, keep them free from parasites, safe from predators, and help them ensure that the majority of their chicks live to adulthood. In exchange, we get to take some of their eggs, which are produced in numbers far in excess of what they need for reproduction, and yes, some of them get killed and eaten. But in the wild, predators are going to eat them, predators who aren't going to be careful to kill only animals who are past their reproductive prime, predators who don't give them a quick and painless death.

As a result of this symbiotic relationship, chickens have spread to every corner of the globe, expanding their range and population far beyond what they'd have been able to do if they hadn't formed a partnership with humans.

 

[secuono]

I keep chickens as pets, but if you have a lot of them, you will get attached to them differently. A few you may personally get attached, others will be more detached. After you go through a large loss, say an illness or an animal attack, it might change your attachment. I thought I couldn't ever kill one of them or prepare one to eat it, but as long as it is humane in the way you raise them, feed them, care for them and in the way you let them go, it is a very different thing. I'm guessing your fiance turned vegan because of all the cruelty the big companies put them through? There's a huge difference between factory meat and your own humanly raised and cared for meat.
Before you get anything, you should figure out what to do about roosters, old egg-less hens, if he can accept humane meat and their overall purpose on your farm.