So sorry!
Poultry experts tell us that this is all typical, and to be expected, sadly. Many hens are dying by three years of age, which seems way too soon to me too.
My youngest was a bantam pullet who never laid an egg, became obviously ill, and on necropsy, had a uterus filling her abdomen, full of pus. Awful, at six months of age!!!
Why? Multiple reasons come to mind.
Nearly all modern birds are hatched from hens and roosters no older than two years of age, and actually most parents are less than two, and are removed from the breeding pens after only one year of production. It's about economics, the least expensive option for the breeder, large or small scale.
High egg production is a huge metabolic strain, and an amazing genetic change, for a wild jungle fowl, small and producing at most 30 eggs per year, all at once, to a much larger bird producing 200 to over 300 eggs each year! Why wouldn't things go wrong?
Some of us do try to keep and cherish our birds who live long and keep producing, and raise chicks from older birds, but we are few and far between.
Mary
Poultry experts tell us that this is all typical, and to be expected, sadly. Many hens are dying by three years of age, which seems way too soon to me too.
My youngest was a bantam pullet who never laid an egg, became obviously ill, and on necropsy, had a uterus filling her abdomen, full of pus. Awful, at six months of age!!!
Why? Multiple reasons come to mind.
Nearly all modern birds are hatched from hens and roosters no older than two years of age, and actually most parents are less than two, and are removed from the breeding pens after only one year of production. It's about economics, the least expensive option for the breeder, large or small scale.
High egg production is a huge metabolic strain, and an amazing genetic change, for a wild jungle fowl, small and producing at most 30 eggs per year, all at once, to a much larger bird producing 200 to over 300 eggs each year! Why wouldn't things go wrong?
Some of us do try to keep and cherish our birds who live long and keep producing, and raise chicks from older birds, but we are few and far between.
Mary
