how long for hens and roos?

I have RIR hens that are over 5-6 years old, still laying very regularly, as well as an ameracauna hen same age laying almost daily. they only stop when they molt, or go broody.

Why would you need to replace a rooster, unless you were changing genetics, or getting rid of a mean one, they dont tend to 'wear out' lol

There was one post on here of someone who had a 17 year old blind rooster who raised all his chicks for him!

 

I've read that meat-strain roosters begin to lose fertility quickly - less than a year.

Apparently it doesn't pay for them to be built like Nuclear Androids .

Steve

 

This is on average for a typical healthy bird, there are exceptions to everything. With better then average care, they can keep going and going.

The best years of laying are up to 3 years old. At that point they are supposed to start decreasing in the amount of laying. You may not really notice it unless you have several old Gals. Just their molts may take longer and the time between laying cycles will increase. At 5 years they can really start to decrease alot more.

I did have two 8-10 year olds that laid very well until their last year.

As long as a Roo is healthy and "active" he shouldn't have any problems. My DotMan will be 5 in May. He is still 'getting the job done'.

Matt

 

Quote:Molts can last from 6 weeks to 3 months and there are exceptions. I have a standard cochin hen that has been molting since October. She has been slowly replacing a few feathers at a time. She is blue and you can tell the old feathers from the new. From the look of it, she should be done in another month or so.

I have some young ladies that kept laying through their molt. It was only an egg every 3rd day, but that was good considering how heavy some molts were. The old gals stopped completely in October and have just recently started again. If they weren't pets they would be heading for the freezer. Bunch of freeloaders.

Matt

 

My birds are 2 yrs old and each one averages 5 eggs a week. I hope mine keep producing for several years. I have one bird that faithfully lays an eggs a day and may skip a day every couple of weeks. All of my birds are banded.