I want egg-laying pets, not just pets

[fasbendera]

With the limit of three birds that would be hard to have one chicken the first year. Would they really bust you if every third or fourth year you had three adult and three chicks? What you do with the old girls is something you will just have to see when the time comes.
Really three birds the amount of feed they eat is nominal. My dog is more expensive than three birds would be and I don't get any eggs from her.

 

[possumqueen]

Quote:
My favorite thing about chickens is how CHEAP they are to keep!!! If they weren't giving me any eggs at all they would be just about the cheapest pets I've ever had! AND they scratch up the bugs and weeds AND they fertilize the yard! How cool is that?

I agree with fasbendera. Who is going to come and count your chickens every day? And if you have a couple extra for a little while would that not be the same as having a dog with a litter of puppies? only cheaper?

 

[noitulover]

i bought a chicken from a poultry swap that i'm pretty sure is 3-ish+ years old... (fairly certain the person sold them because the laying slowed down)

we've had her over six months now and she lays us about 3 eggs a week, which is better than some breeds ever lay! haha (i assume she used to lay 4+ eggs a week)

chickens certainly don't just "stop laying" after their peak. they may just not lay 5 eggs a week.

plenty of people crock pot them or "freezer camp" them, or whatever other polite terms they use for eating them...

if eggs are the most important thing that you want in a chicken, i would definitely keep them for a 1-2 years and then try selling them at a local poultry swap, list them on craigslist, or even list them in the Buy/Sell/Trade section on here! plenty of people want "currently laying" hens... list them as free or for a very, very low price and you can get them off of your hands easily without butchering.

 

[Amethyste]

My EE Mercedes is 5 years old and stil lays. Not as much, but she still carriess on lol

 

[patandchickens]

With only 3 chickens there isn't really much room for having them be different ages. However, they may not all quit laying regularly at the same age, or even all *survive* to that age, let alone necessarily a lot longer. Many do, of course, but many do not.

I guess my suggestion would be "don't count your problems before they've hatched"

- it is reasonable to think about what you would do in different scenarios but you'll jsut have to see how it plays out, and it is not impossible that your thoughts on the matter may have changed by then *anyhow*.

For sure get some chickens though

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:

gotta agree with pat and her chickens!!!

 

[Beekissed]

And....if you want to cull your flock but don't want to eat them, there is always someone out there who will buy them or take them for free.

I think it's very reasonable to plan for your future in poultry raising! I don't exactly make pets of mine, but I have kept a few past the peak egg-laying age....but not for long.

Money is money, whether it's a little or a lot. If one is not really into losing good money, then it's definitely a thing to consider before getting into this whole thing.

 

[TheChad]

Just put the older hens on Craigslist or somewhere for a real good price and someone will always buy them. I try to rotate hens ever 3-4 years.

 

[Redwood City Guy]

Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful responses. I'm less afraid now of what happens a few years out, but Dixiedoodle has given me pause regarding the amount of time/effort involved. With a full-time job, a three bedroom house to clean, cooking, shopping, gardening, tending to the pool, etc., I'm certainly not going to have time to spot clean and watch over them like a mother hen

. This reinforces my thinking that I want a set-up to facilitate ease of care and cleaning. I think I'll wander over to the coop forum now.

 

[Akane]

How many eggs do you want? Hens will still lay eggs after 4 years. They don't suddenly stop all at once. Sometimes even 8year old hens lay eggs. It's just not very many eggs. If you don't use many eggs though then you might continue to be fine for awhile. Personally I find 6years of having a chicken to be quite a long time for me and the chicken. Most likely something will happen in that time to either end their life or allow you to keep them. You do have to plan just in case but I wouldn't let that stop me from having chickens at all.


3 chickens really isn't much work. You can make it into a ton of work by constantly cleaning everything but do they really truly need it? Go count how many people on here use the deep litter method where they never remove bedding from their coop but only stir, add more bedding, and clean out extra poop covered areas like roosts and boards near roosts. I follow the old standard for farms around here. Clean it good in the fall, bed it deep, clean it good in the spring, bed it light for the few months of summer, and leave it alone the rest of the year except to add a little bedding as needed. My coop never smells. Provided the coop is big enough and stays dry it should not smell. You may need to clean a little more often and spend a day every couple weeks scraping down areas that get extra poop since you are in town but constant spot cleaning is not necessary. Neither is scrubbing waterers several times a day or even every day. Sure you can but whether it's necessary is highly debateable and most likely not followed by a good majority. I check mine daily and about once or twice a week dump one in a stock tank to soak and grab a clean one. Then I rinse it good the next day and leave to dry. They get fully disinfected maybe monthly if I remember. My chick waterers I disinfect more frequently but I really don't find it necessary for the adults. A little algae won't harm them either so long as it's the green kind. One of my low stock tanks doesn't get emptied all summer, grows a nice crop of algae, and gets filled with guppies to eat the mosquito larvae. They drink out of it daily. No sick chickens so far. For the ones in the coop I lost count how many I have and I spend maybe 30mins a day actually taking care of them including opening the door in the morning and closing it at night, about one day a month doing extra cleaning, and a couple days spring and fall emptying and refilling the coop. It's my seramas and chicks in pens on the porch or brooders in the house that take up my time.