How long do you keep your chickens?

[6chickens in St. Charles]

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I overheard "...but when they dont produce eggs anymore you have to slaughter them" from a few ladies discussing the backyard chicken idea. I was shocked. Really. I hope the day they meet their baby hens they understand where I'm coming from. "But what do you do with them when they don't lay eggs anymore?"

Geesh. After 3 or 4 years of eggs every day, 7 days a week, I think I'll sit on the porch swing with my hen and just watch a video. We'll just relax. That was a lot of eggs. I'll read a good book with her. By then we're ready for a break, right? Maybe a diet too. We'll both eat greens for a while, by the time her egglaying pullets start laying I'll be ready for another few years of fresh eggs. We're a healthy eating family of 5, and our 4 banty laying hens was more eggs than we could use, surprised us too!

As long as she can walk, she's welcome to walk in the garden with me, asking me to dip her beetles in water for her. Today she was up on the highest roost away from the others, so I petted her and discovered a really huge lump in her gullet and a smile on her face (she finally got that pesky squirrel!). Our chickens are very much our pets. Here's some pictures, we didn't set out to keep chickens as pets, but here we are a few years later and we're fine:

Now, if somebody asks me why do I have backyard chickens, I can honestly answer , "I have them because I graciously accepted a gift. They're a really lovely gift."

 

[buckabucka]

I don't think we'll keep our chickens forever, but some are definitely favorites and may be around longer than others.

While I certainly do not like to see an animal suffer, I have mixed feelings about killing for "humane reasons". I have watched many people suffer, extremely sick and not much chance of recovery, but the will to live is very strong. Many people do not want to end their lives, despite suffering. It is sometimes hard to judge when we should end an animal's suffering (other times, more obvious).

I thought it was interesting, when Scott Nearing turned 100, he decided he had lived long enough and just stopped eating.

 

[chickenlorena]

I loved your post 6chickens in St. Charles!! We are a family of 5 as well and we all enjoy eggs but can live without them no problems if necessary. Eggs are not the reason why we have hens... they are animal companions to us and they are welcome to enjoy their old age with us. That's the least we can do after they provided us with eggs

By the way, my family eats eggs from our hens because that's the only way we can make sure the eggs we eat come from hens that were treated with love and dignity, not like commodities for a little while. We have now 3 hens, only 1 is laying, the other 2 will in the next couple of moths. Although sometimes I find I'm short of eggs for a recipe, I choose to change the recipe rather than buying eggs from a grocery store or a farm where hens are killed after they stop laying.


This is my son, checking on "Chestnut", her favorite girl, after a snowstorm.

And here they are cuddling together

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Ooh Chestnut is a very pretty girl! Is she a RIR?

More pet pictures of kids cuddling their chicken:
(I just love an opportunity to post a picture)
Here's Timmy when he was 7, cuddling Chloe who stands too long in the rain (the kids say she's autistic, she obsesses over running water)

And here's Timmy when he was 6, holding our EE "Roaster":

Oh Wait! Teenagers are cute too! Here's Chloe on a dry sunny day:

For me, the chickens get me outside, in the real live air. I work long and hard, and it seems like God has gifted me with the opportunity to experience the sunshine every day that I get to be home. Because I have to go out to take care of the chickens. Now, I garden, compost, hang laundry out there, bring coffee to the neighbor over the fence, because the chickens are out there, just beckoning.......

 

[sharol]

6chickens, I agree with you. My girls have their forever home with me. They are my pets. I didn't start out to have 7 pets that happen to lay wonderful eggs, it just turned out that way.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

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Totally. Its a love fest. We didn't mean to, but we kept them as pets and were totally shocked when our EE "Roaster" tried to lay her first egg on our couch. The eggs are a bonus. Their character is priceless! Life with the chickens has improved our homelife many-fold. Who knew?

What kinds do you have?

And what is the OP's pretty chicken? Is she a rescue battery hen, or a comet, or a RIR? She's pretty.

 

[chickenlorena]

She's a golden comet

Only one that is not rescued... she was given to my son by a neighbor when we had to put 1 of our rescue hens down (a "broiler" that had fallen of a truck on her way to slaughter). We did everything we could but she had been "abused" too long and too hard by the egg industry. At least she was put down in a fast and humane way, instead of suffering through the terror and pain of conventional slaughterhouses.

The 2 behind my son holding "Chesnut" are an EE pullet and another "broiler" roo that we were able to rehabilitate and has found a forever home at a nearby farm where we are welcome to visit him anytime we want. We are not allowed to have roosters in our subdivision

So now, we have the Chestunt (golden comet), Stephanie (Welsummer) and Lemon-pepper (EE). I don't know where my son got the name "Lemon-pepper" (he names all of our chickens)! We don't even eat chicken!!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

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I bet there's more and more! Lots of suburban chickens are pets with their own digs. We give them artwork and other comforts in their coop. Maybe they'll eventually have their own TV:

I totally appreciate larger scale poultry operations, I value the art and craft of people keeping 30 hens and bigger flocks, dual purpose breeds in a farmette, and all the history and family tradition in that. I'm just so very grateful for the suburban backyard chicken movement, enabling us to share in the delight of poultry without having to be a big producer. Or maybe its more of a resurgence of backyard chicken keeping, there seems to be a little history in this, too. We have a poster from 1918 "Uncle Sam wants YOU to keep chickens!" so perhaps what we have here is as old fashioned as apple pie. A few chickens in a few backyards = a few more delightful spaces on this green earth.

Also = a few more people outdoors once in a while!

 

[gryeyes]

I've already posted, but in reading subsequent comments, I was particularly struck by mamabigbird's statement:
"Otherwise they are considered as coop insulators for the ones who are laying."

I love that: Coop Insulators for the Layers.

I wanted chickens for free fertilizer, knew they'd eat bugs, and as an afterthought, realized I could get eggs from them, too. What a bonus! So they don't have to lay eggs for me. However, similar to what 6Chickens in St. Charles said said about hers, my chickens will enjoy their retirement after they stop laying.

My dogs and cats don't lay eggs, either. Each of my companion animals has its "purpose" in my life; if they give me more than companionship, I am blessed.

 

[chickenlorena]

Great coop 6chickens in St. Charles! Do you have picts of the outside coop as well?

Or more of the insie too!