Life Span Of A Chicken????

They only live until somebody eats them. Predator or people the chickens don't seem to have a very long life span.

 

A chicken can live between 10-15 years although there have been instances where they have lived longer,But their egg production begins to slow at around three years.

 

Byc did a poll on how old the oldest chickens people had were, don't know the results.

 

I am not really sure but on that poll there were some over 16 yrs. As of now I am not sure how old my two are but all my other are 12 week or younger for I just started with chickens.
Here is the poll
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=522611

 

I had some production RIR's and I had them for eight years , they gave eggs everyday with out the suppliment layer ration ? I ended giving them away when the Rooster died and the other owner had them for years as well , not sure what ever happened to them but I was impressed .

 

I had a game cock that lived for 17 years.

 

I had a bantam cochin hen that lived to be about 16, give or take a year. She didn't lay eggs after a certain point, but we never got rid of her. She served me well through the entire time I was in
4-H. All the other birds we owned suffered the fate of the first responder to your post... they didn't live long because they got eaten by something first. I imagine life span would vary by breed. Just as it does in dogs and cats. But with clean secure living quarters and minimal to nothing for medical care, they seem to live quite a long time.

 

my son has a BR, or should I say I have a BR. that my son won't let me get rid off. She is 8 or 9 and still lays eggs. Me and my dad can't believe that she is still alive or lays eggs. She free ranges and does her own thing. after age 4 she started going broody, before that she wouldn't sit on an egg for all the feed in the world

 

Quote:I think hybrid layers start to tail off much faster than pure breeds do. Probably because they lay more to start with. But I also know of people with ex-bats who still lay fabulously, long after they were discarded by the battery farms they came from for being 'poor layers'. I have Leghorns that were a few yyears old when I got them, and two years on they are still laying every bit as well as they were to start with. The oldest I have heard of chickens living is 15 or 16 years...