How old is too old

[Slw]

I thought my prairie blue bell egger who is 4 years old stopped laying eggs last year. I put her with a young 8 month old rooster and was planning to rehome them. She magically started laying eggs again this May. No doubt that she’s been mated. I collected the eggs and put them in the incubator for a week just to see if this will turn out or not. Candled them and all are fertile! Has anyone else had this experience? If yes, how successful was the hatch? How old is too old for hen too get a successful hatch from?

 

[Ridgerunner]

The problem with older hens is that they often lay fewer eggs. It is not that they don't lay good eggs, they just lay fewer. A pullet just starting to lay and an old hen late in her laying career is more prone to laying eggs that are not perfect but that does not mean that all or even most are not perfect. If you had an 8-year-old hen still laying you would have a decent chance of hatching her eggs. You probably would not get many eggs though.