How long do chickens produce eggs?

[nchls school]

My wife and I have been married 8 years. She grew up in Chicago so she had never been around farms or livestock. One of her first requests was for me to get her a chicken. I gave her a mixed breed bantam pullet which she named Hannah. Hannah is now 8 years old and still laying eggs; certainly not as many as she used to but one egg every other day while she is laying; she goes broody often and has hatched pheasant, muscovey ducks, and silkie eggs. I'm curious as to how long chickens live and how long they continue to lay. In the distant past I have had bantams that were 10 years old and still laid an occasional egg and went broody.

 

[Judy]

About 15 years is old age, though they often die much younger. And your bird is doing VERY well laying that many eggs at her age. Usually they lay at whatever their highest rate is for a couple of years or so, then start slowing down. Some quit in a few years and some, like yours, lay for many more years, just fewer and fewer eggs er year. They have a finite number of ova at birth, so "how long' is partly dependent on "how many."