Keeping backyard flock productive/profitable - what to do w/ the Old Girls

[MrsChickenPam]

I'm not "there" yet, but definitely need to plan for and prepare the family for the future....

My six hens are 16 months. They provide more than enough eggs for the family, I enjoy having extras to give as gifts and occasionally sell. Six seems a good number for us.

I do not want to keep unproductive hens as pets - it doesn't make sense for me or my family from a cost or labor point of view. Would love your advice on the following (and anything else I've overlooked!)

**How/when to rotate the flock - was thinking of adding 2-3 each year, and culling 2-3 each year?

**What to do w/ the birds I no longer want. Not adverse to killing/eating them, we did that with a roo we wound up with. If we decide to go that route, do you feed your older birds anything different/special to make them better eating? Other options? I figure maybe I could give them away on CraigsList to someone who either wants them as pets or as food. Anyone try this?

**What else should I plan for? (besides my daughter's tears....)

 

[bobbi-j]

I'm just trying to figure out the rotating of the stock myself, so I can't answer that. I pressure-can the old hens that we butcher. I would butcher more than 2-3 at a time for that, though, since it's a lot of work for not a lot of meat. I don't know of anything to make them better eating, but if you cook them low and slow for a long time, they do get tender and the broth is very flavorful. Your daughter - how old is she? Start preparing her now if you plan to butcher or even give away your spent hens. My neighbor has just started raising meat goats. They have a wether that they plan to butcher this year. Her 6-year old daughter goes out and plays with all the goats and refers to the wether as "the one we're going to eat" and goes right on playing with him. How your daughter reacts will depend much upon how you act, or prepare her for it. If you treat it as just a fact of life, she will respond better, I think. Don't get emotional and don't act like you expect her to. She might anyway, but I think it will be less traumatic for her if you prepare her early and talk about it matter-of-factly.

 

[MrsChickenPam]

Yes, it would only be 2-3 hens per year and I don't (yet) own a pressure canner. But I have a "deer freezer" and a few chickens would fit fine.

My daughter is 13. It was interesting how she handled the whole butchering of the roo thang... she was adamant that she wasn't going to be home when we did it (much less eat him). Well, my 15yr old son had a few friends hanging around and I suggested it would be a good project for them. My son hunts, but has never had to butcher a chicken. I told them to watch YouTube and figure out a humane way to kill it, and a sanitary way to finish the job. They did a GREAT job with it, though it took them a good 2 hours. Well, that's 2 hours they weren't on the xbox, so time well spent.

Anyway, they'd gone out to our back lot to kill him, and I had a pot of water on the grill to dip it. As they approached the house, I told my daughter she'd better go upstairs and stay there a while. However, the upside down bird was so beautiful she was intrigued. So.... she started orbiting the process. When the boys started plucking, she thought it was interesting, and helped. She backed off a bit when they began gutting and butchering, but really, it's NOT messy since the blood is drained, and they had clean water running over it too. They started coming in to the house w/ different offal in their hands, asking what it was and what it did. She was right in there with them. It ceased to be "Big Bird" and became meat to her.

She still wouldn't eat him though.

Anyway. A roo is different. He was mean and loud and we all couldn't wait for him to go. We've had The Girls significantly longer and we like them all. But.... they are definitely MY chickens, she takes little to no part in their care and feeding, and doesn't even really care for eggs on their own. So, we'll "get there" with her, especially with planning ahead.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

At only sixteen months I would not yet eliminate your whole flock. They may have one more productive year in them.

Google "judging past egg production" and do some reading. Once you have you can then inspect each of your birds to determine who is worth keeping and who is not. Chances are at least a couple will be candidates for the pot, but the remainder should have at least one more year in them.

Generally speaking if you want to maintain profitability (as in they pay for their keep) then plan on replacing half the flock each year. It's determining which half is to go that one must learn how to judge past egg production.

The ones that do get fired are now "stewing hens." Plenty of recipes for them to be found if you search for them. There's never been a bird so tough that a pressure cooker could not tenderize them.

 

[bantamofopera]

FWIW, we found a home for 7 4-year old birds this summer (craigslist). They are joining another flock and will lay for the summer until they become meat for another family. We just didn't have time to do it ourselves this year, so we passed them on. At 4 years, though, we were still getting on average 6 eggs a day from our 8 hens. We figured the one dowager, who is 9!! was no longer laying. Well, when the other hens left we found out she was laying an egg every other day. So you may want to wait and see how yours lay. It does sound like a workable plan to cull 2-3 per year, if you can replace that small a number of chicks. But if you let them rest in the winter they should have at least 4 years and our 'Henny Penny' is still going strong at 9. We find that if you give them lots of space and food they continue to be productive enough for quite a long time.