Official Squatch Watchers

[Molpet]

That sounds like a good plan! 6 seems like a pretty old age (for a rooster) to me.

Glad to hear you think that's old, I was feeling like a bad chicken tender... I have 2 hens, hatchery bjg, the same age that are fine. Can't really tell them from their daughters except the daughters have some red on the neck.

 

[Parront]

Glad to hear you think that's old, I was feeling like a bad chicken tender... I have 2 hens, hatchery bjg, the same age that are fine. Can't really tell them from their daughters except the daughters have some red on the neck.

Chickens are not long-lived. The oldest hens I have heard of were 9. Roosters live a pretty tough life, I expect that 2 would be the oldest hatchery male. They have not been bred for life expectancy!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Glad to hear you think that's old, I was feeling like a bad chicken tender... I have 2 hens, hatchery bjg, the same age that are fine. Can't really tell them from their daughters except the daughters have some red on the neck.

Average age for chickens is 6-12 years with some report of them living to 20.

Chickens are not long-lived. The oldest hens I have heard of were 9. Roosters live a pretty tough life, I expect that 2 would be the oldest hatchery male. They have not been bred for life expectancy!

I think that has to do a lot with feed. I personally feed Grower/broiler so my roosters don't get the extra calcium. That can give them kidney and liver problems in the long term.

 

[Molpet]

Chickens are not long-lived. The oldest hens I have heard of were 9. Roosters live a pretty tough life, I expect that 2 would be the oldest hatchery male. They have not been bred for life expectancy!

Average age for chickens is 6-12 years with some report of them living to 20.


I think that has to do a lot with feed. I personally feed Grower/broiler so my roosters don't get the extra calcium. That can give them kidney and liver problems in the long term.

He was from a person's mixed flock.. I don't know how far removed from the hatchery.

I feed everyone either all flock, chick starter or grower, and now 28% turkey starter... the high protein feed probably doesn't help him. But poults are with him.. and I don't hatch his eggs on purpose... just kept him because he was the first in 40+ yrs

 

[CapricornFarm]

Hi guys, its a beautiful day here.

I sold 3 Cornish cockerels to the guy that helped me butcher my pigs. He has my cull hens from last year and some hatchery bantams. He's currently breeding the cull hens to his NN roo. He wants to breed NN Cornish. They'll look so funny.

Sadly, I think it is about time to put HAL out of his misery. He's in obvious pain a lot of the time now. I can actually walk up to him and pick him up without chasing him or having him fight at all. As it gets warmer, he is doing worse. Thankfully, I only needed to get cockerels off him and this year only. Including Robinson, I have at least 4-5 known Dark cockerels off of him that doesn't include the one chick from him that is too young to tell and the eggs in the incubators. I also have all my Jubilees from him too. I think I'll probably put him down later this week and then set any eggs I get from his girls for the next 2 weeks. He did good.

I put down a couple chicks with walking issues, they were just not doing well. It sucks, but needs to be done. Hugs.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Losing them at any age is definitely the hard part of chicken keeping.

For everyone dealing with these struggles.

 

[Redhead Rae]

He was from a person's mixed flock.. I don't know how far removed from the hatchery.

I feed everyone either all flock, chick starter or grower, and now 28% turkey starter... the high protein feed probably doesn't help him. But poults are with him.. and I don't hatch his eggs on purpose... just kept him because he was the first in 40+ yrs

I like my chickens on 18-20% feed. I find if I feed them 14-16% feed I have quite a few that go through a HARD molt, I'm talking naked porcupine chicken molt. Since moving to higher protein feed, I've had no naked chickens.

I put down a couple chicks with walking issues, they were just not doing well. It sucks, but needs to be done. Hugs.

 

[Parront]

He was from a person's mixed flock.. I don't know how far removed from the hatchery.

I feed everyone either all flock, chick starter or grower, and now 28% turkey starter... the high protein feed probably doesn't help him. But poults are with him.. and I don't hatch his eggs on purpose... just kept him because he was the first in 40+ yrs

I think old time breeds were bred more for long, healthy lives. And being a mixed breed might have already contributed to a pretty respectable life-span. It is a little like the question of how long a dog lives, different breeds are dramatically different. My Grey parrot, they quote life-span of 40 to 80, which really means they do not know that much about how long Greys can live, to me.

 

[Molpet]

I put down a couple chicks with walking issues, they were just not doing well. It sucks, but needs to be done. Hugs.

I hate doing that but it's necessary sometimes
I have a poult not growing, but seems healthy otherwise. He's keeping up with the hen

 

[Redhead Rae]

I hate doing that but it's necessary sometimes
I have a poult not growing, but seems healthy otherwise. He's keeping up with the hen

I had one CX that didn't grow right. While the others were all well over 5lbs, he barely weighed 2 before evisceration. I decided to just feed him to the pigs. I should have culled him and turned him into bacon earlier rather than trying to see if he would grow out.