Does everyone here kill their chickens after they stop producing eggs?

[annaserv]

Once they get to around 2 years my girls get to die of old age, (not considering hawks or eggs laying complications). I even wish my little banty Cochin would slack off and quit laying (tiny eggs and she's over 5 years old)

I get the Cornish cross boys for the freezer, not my girls. I really don't have a lot of layers so I just add some new ones to the group every so often. Space isn't really and issue so no reason to thin them out. Besides they have names.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I certainly do not plan to either...they will still be my pets, just older.

 

[deb1]

I gave my Buff Orp away at three years because I was moving, not because of eggs. But at three years they were still each laying an egg a day. I had twelve chickens and one rooster. A dozen eggs is way too much for my family!

even if I had been going to kill them when they decreased egg production it would have been silly for me to do so at even three years. Maybe your hens will be super egg layers like mine were.

 

[Henrietta23]

I don't. I only have a small number in the past so I've never ended up with a large number of non-laying hens to feed. Now I have 15 so it looks like somewhere down the line I'll be running a chicken retirement home. One of my hens is 10, hasn't laid an egg in 6 years or so, isn't even very friendly, but here she stays! To us they're pets.

 

[SamG347]

Well before feed prices SKY ROCKETED...my intention was to give my older girls a retirement home here. And that is still my plan hopefully if the feed doesnt goo to much higher. Another thing I have been considering is free ranging the birds.
But we will see what happens.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

mine will be walking around with canes.
Seriously. My dh thinks that once the ladies stop producing they will be in the pot. He wants a T Shirt that reads. "My Pets make me breakfast" on the front and "Someday they will make me dinner" on the back. It isnt going to happen. The girls going in the pot that is. I think I might have the T made for him though

 

[Sal54]

For those of you who do cull your chickens when they stop laying; what exactly do you do with them? As I see it, if I do decide to cull my chickens, the options are: put an add on Craig's list to give them away, sell them at a livestock auction, or butcher them myself. If anyone knows of an auction in the Puget Sound area, could you post that contact? I actually wouldn't mind learning how to butcher a chicken, but don't know of anyone who could teach me. How have other people learned this skill?

 

[silkiechicken]

The pet chickens stay forever. The production chickens stay for 2-3 years tops. Extras are either sold if still young or made into soup. I butcher my own birds.

Sal54, go to the meat bird section and there is a sticky with info on how to do the deed.

 

[barney]

If a chicken has a head and I have looked into
her eyes...that's it for me!
Can't eat something I've met or have taken
care of...............

 

[Emzyyy]

I would never even think killing mine for food because I get so attached to them, their like dogs to me and its kinda strange eatin a dog.