Keeping Chickens for Their Entire Lifespan

[Juise]

HEChicken - That's really interesting, I had assumed that they worked much in the same way we do in the egg department. Meaning, while we are born with as many eggs as we will ever have, we are only "producing" (ovulating) them for our fertile years, and will never actually use up our available eggs. It doesn't matter how many eggs you have, you are going to "lay" (ha!) them for the baby-making period of your life and stop.

 

[Oregon Blues]

A very serious suggestion: Do not buy more hens than what it takes to produce the number of eggs your own family will eat. You will not make any money selling eggs and you end up subsidizing someone else's food bill.

If you are going to keep your hens forever, then keep the numbers way down. Only add enough hens to replace your layers who are slowing down. If you are feeding lots of non-productive hens, your eggs are going to be extremely expensive.

Another suggestion: if you only want eggs, settle on an egg laying specialist breed, because they are smaller and won't eat nearly as much.

It does not take very many hens to provide eggs for one family. Figure out how many eggs your family will eat and do not get any more hens than that.

 

[Juise]

Right now we have 1 Black Star, 2 New Hampshire Reds, and 2 Isa Browns. The 8 - 10 weeks old chicks we ordered and will be picking up in March are all Araucanas. I think at this point that it will be 3 years or so before we add any more to the flock, so I guess I will have to look into egg layers then.

I don't know if it makes any impact on profit, and it very well may end up a negative one, but our chickens are free range and organic, so the eggs we sell we will be selling for a bit more. There's not a whole lot of availability around here for that sort of thing. I am still reeling from the jacked up prices at our local health food stores, when we moved here a handful of years ago we'd been living in Lansing, MI, which was a plenty big enough city to have a whole slew of health food stores and big chains, so prices were a lot lower. For example, I pay almost 3 dollars more now for a smaller jar of regular Veganaise (yes, it is vegan mayonaise, lol,) than I paid in Lansing for a larger jar of organic Veganaise.

It's insane!

 

[oesdog]

Well you will certainly be a victim of chicken math!!!!!!! - I know how you feel though as my girls are forever girls.
I had 6 girls originally and one sadly had an accident and died. Then we got a replacement from the fellow who got me the girls in the first place. She sadly also died shortly after so I was left with 5. I hate odd numbers by the way. Then we had 6 chicks but 4 turned out to be Roos and could not stay. The other two joined our flock taking the number of hens to 7 - then a lad turned up with 3 PR hens he didn;t want in a sack half starved. They also joined my girls taking my number of hens to 10. Out of those 4 are PRs and I guess about 3 yrs old now. The others are mostly Red Sussex and Maran which are duel purpose birds. These are my "forever flock".

Now this is where the problem comes in. My DH needs eggs for baking so once these start to fall in production they are past usefull. What to do???? So I now have an incubator and am planning to start some eggs off soon now that the weather is improving. I am hatching Light Sussex ( Because they are totally different from my girls.) These will be duel purpose so they will be Roo boys for the freezer and hens will be kept for one season then dispatched and replaced with more chicks. - This is the plan. Then Dh wont notice my girls decrease in eggs - Ummmm?

Fly in the ointment - my son has two hens - Snowball and crazylegs. They are duel purpose breeds a maran and a light sussex. So if snowball comes here she will have to wear a leg band or she may get mixed up with the other birds for meat? This is the only way I can see rouond the problem for us. Of course you being vegan wont have this option! It is very hard to know what to do longterm with your spent hens. I have come to the place where I am certain that I need to be thinking financial viability and not emotional attachment now. So I no longer take the girls to the Vet - if I can;t fix them they simply cannot survive. As I can buy 3 point of lay hens for the cost of a vet without him even looking at my birds. So although they are my special girls I have to have a sensible head too. It is a steep learning curve. I am looking foward to the meat bird option though and for me I think I will feel a sence of achievement knowing that the food on the table has been treated with respect and kindness and had the best life. - like yourself I am very into making sure livestock has the best life whatever we decide to do with them in the end.

Oesdog - hope your girls last a very long time and make great pets, dogs/cats don't lay eggs either!!!!!!

 

[Juise]

I know, right!? Some chicken math! I'm glad you have worked things out so you are comfortable with it. You're right, though, not the solution for me.

Our current 5 are all very sweet and they do make great pets. I have two little girls, a 1 1/2 year old and a 4 year old, and they simply adore the chickens. It is so funny. They all let my 4 y/o pick them up and hang around the kids while they are out playing, (in case they happen to have something to eat, of course!

)

Despite our having had chickens for most of her life, our 19 month old goes positively ballistic every time she spots one out the window.

"Chicken" is her favourite ASL sign, one she uses often!

We have 4 cats, also, and so far, now of them have laid any eggs.

Although they do keep the gardens and premises pretty clear of invaders.

I'm still trying to rationalize getting a couple pygmy goats, I haven't come up with any good enough reasons for my husband, yet, though.

 

[allpeepedout]

A very serious suggestion: Do not buy more hens than what it takes to produce the number of eggs your own family will eat. You will not make any money selling eggs and you end up subsidizing someone else's food bill.

If you are going to keep your hens forever, then keep the numbers way down. Only add enough hens to replace your layers who are slowing down. If you are feeding lots of non-productive hens, your eggs are going to be extremely expensive.

Another suggestion: if you only want eggs, settle on an egg laying specialist breed, because they are smaller and won't eat nearly as much.

It does not take very many hens to provide eggs for one family. Figure out how many eggs your family will eat and do not get any more hens than that.

Like the OP, I also want to keep the old gals alive but maintain production, and appreciate this response. I plan to add egg laying specialists when the current crop slows. I am reading that the Leghorns and breeds like Hamburgs lay for more years but don't know if that is reliable or maybe strain related. I started with 6 hens and roo, and am thinking of adding a few every two to three years. Chickens seem to have a high mortality rate, and many report their hatchery birds kicking off very young (and under sad health circumstances), yet just my luck my retirees will live forever. I think there is a small backyard niche market for any breeders who want to come up with a long-lived and long-laying bird, at a lesser but steady production rate.

 

[Kaitie09]

I just posted the same thing in another post. I have 4 hens that are no longer laying regularly and they will be 5 or 6 this year. 2 years ago, I bought 12. I'm now starting to realize I may end up with 16 hens that barely lay. Unfortunately, free ranging is not an option, so they will not be able to supplement their food. One of them could have a great life as a professional broody (which she is from March until October), but the others have no purpose. I will probably end up building a retirement village for them.

 

[so lucky]

Even if an old hen is not laying any longer, she still is a good fertilizer machine and insect eradicator.

 

[HEChicken]

I think there is a small backyard niche market for any breeders who want to come up with a long-lived and long-laying bird, at a lesser but steady production rate.

It already exists! If you look at my earlier post on this thread, it explains how all of this works. No breed has more eggs to begin with than any other breed - the length of time they lay is wholly determined by how fast they use them up. Leghorns probably don't fit the bill because although yes, they are a smaller bird who doesn't eat as much, they are also a prolific layer when young which means they run out of eggs that much faster. The "long-lived and long-laying bird, at a lesser but steady production rate" is your heritage DP bird.

 

[Mule Chick]

Maybe you could get a rooster and raise your own replacements. When a hen goes broody if you aren't ready just take the eggs away and when you are ready leave them under her. I just love watching a hen raise her chicks and I bet your kids would enjoy it, too. If you have a good rooster it's also enjoyable to watch how he takes cares of his girls.