Intro - new / not new to laying hens

I live in central NC with various laying hens of different breeds for the past 15 years or so.
Mine are covert chickens and don't have a rooster so I can dodge the HOA.
My mother-in-law has been point on health and butchering but she is retiring from chicken duty and now it is my job. She has a lot of long held knowledge about care, feeding and sickness as she is quite old and has grown up with meat and laying hens.
I look forward to learning the specifics about diseases and proper nutrition - she was pretty old school and fed them corn, yard forage and table scraps. She has gotten pretty consistent results out of every flock with the average lifespan of 3 years before the PURGE happens and new crew arrives. Unless a hen was ill she usually ended up in a soup pot and all of my kids love Sunday chicken soup! For now I'm focusing on laying hens.

Maybe I'll get brave enough to get meat birds one day. I need to learn how they butcher like my wife and MIL does so my kids and see I'm not a wimp and become brave enough themselves.
welcome to BYC!!
 

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