Older Chickens - really slowed down on laying

[kristens]

We have been raising chickens for eggs for about 6 years. We originally started off by purchasing 12 leghorns from a caged farm who were going to dispose of their 2 year old chickens. They have been fantastic layers and 6 years later - 2 are still alive and still laying a few a week between the 2 of them. From there we have purchased a few new flocks . We haven't bought babies for a few years now.. so out of our 20 chickens - the youngest are about 3 years old. Production has slowed tremendously. We get about 6 per day out of the 20 chickens. (if that). they have all molted several times. They are free range, come in at night to the barn to roost. have boxes to lay in the barn and are free of mites, etc and are very clean and healthy. but are not laying! My husband wants to ax them - i don't because we still get eggs! but i also don't want to add new to an older flock who seem to be all set in their ways. Has anyone ever seperated an entire flock into a seperate area and started a new batch from scratch. I'm thinking we just send them to the retirement 'field' and let them have their seperate spot and bring in a whole new batch to start fresh. how do others handle multi age groups. also i don't want to crowd them. adding more to the current roost area and layer boxes (we have 8 boxes) adding more may get too cramped. (even though they can free range but a rainy or hot day they do all hang out in the barn) any thoughts?

 

[bobbi-j]

We have been raising chickens for eggs for about 6 years. We originally started off by purchasing 12 leghorns from a caged farm who were going to dispose of their 2 year old chickens. They have been fantastic layers and 6 years later - 2 are still alive and still laying a few a week between the 2 of them. From there we have purchased a few new flocks . We haven't bought babies for a few years now.. so out of our 20 chickens - the youngest are about 3 years old. Production has slowed tremendously. We get about 6 per day out of the 20 chickens. (if that). they have all molted several times. They are free range, come in at night to the barn to roost. have boxes to lay in the barn and are free of mites, etc and are very clean and healthy. but are not laying! My husband wants to ax them - i don't because we still get eggs! but i also don't want to add new to an older flock who seem to be all set in their ways. Has anyone ever seperated an entire flock into a seperate area and started a new batch from scratch. I'm thinking we just send them to the retirement 'field' and let them have their seperate spot and bring in a whole new batch to start fresh. how do others handle multi age groups. also i don't want to crowd them. adding more to the current roost area and layer boxes (we have 8 boxes) adding more may get too cramped. (even though they can free range but a rainy or hot day they do all hang out in the barn) any thoughts?

Given their ages and the time of year, they will slow down with their laying. Personally, I don't want to feed 20 non-productive chickens. I would process the oldest ones and keep a few of the youngest.

It's entirely up to you and your husband, of course, what you do with your non-productive birds. If you have the room and the money to build a retirement coop and run, and are OK with having them as pets, then do that. Have a retirement coop and an actively producing coop. If you have the space, there is no reason it shouldn't work. I'm not quite sure what you mean my "retirement field", though. You're not just planning on turning them loose into a field, I hope.

 

[lazy gardener]

If you start a new flock, and keep the older birds until the new ones are laying, that would be a viable option. You would then need to cull or rehome the old birds (not likely to happen). Or you could set them up with their own coop or even integrate the younger birds with the older ones.

Some folks do an all out/all in approach: cull the old flock, then start a brand new flock. the benefit to this is less likelihood of disease being carried forward into the new flock. But if no disease issues, that's a non issue.

From an economic standpoint, it makes the most sense (imo) to start some new chicks every year, or even every 2 years. That way you have some seasoned layers who are giving you some nice big eggs. And you have some pullets that are laying the pee-wee eggs, but you can be assured that they will have their best production days ahead of them. So, every year, you add a few, and remove a few. This is my management style.

It would not be ethical to simply turn them loose into the field. First, there is the responsibility factor. If I own an animal, I also own responsibility for it's care from the moment it enters my life, till the moment it draws it's last breath. Also, feral chickens will be attractive to predators. After the predator eats those chickens, he will move on to your laying flock. And feral chickens can become disease vectors, or migrate to the next farm, where they become some one else's problem.

 

[artsyrobin]

no i keep my elders with the flock, that is their family, they watch over the youngers and will roost with them under their wings, my elders are 9 years this year and still occasionally lay. You need to act responsibly with your flock, and turning them out is not responsible in my opinion

 

[BirdHead]

Dinner or pet.
Simple lol
My opinion, pet.

 

[kristens]

Given their ages and the time of year, they will slow down with their laying. Personally, I don't want to feed 20 non-productive chickens. I would process the oldest ones and keep a few of the youngest.

It's entirely up to you and your husband, of course, what you do with your non-productive birds. If you have the room and the money to build a retirement coop and run, and are OK with having them as pets, then do that. Have a retirement coop and an actively producing coop. If you have the space, there is no reason it shouldn't work. I'm not quite sure what you mean my "retirement field", though. You're not just planning on turning them loose into a field, I hope.

thank you! no, def would have a space to coop and lay...

 

[kristens]

no i keep my elders with the flock, that is their family, they watch over the youngers and will roost with them under their wings, my elders are 9 years this year and still occasionally lay. You need to act responsibly with your flock, and turning them out is not responsible in my opinion

wasn't planning on turning them 'loose' just making a seperate space.

 

[kristens]

If you start a new flock, and keep the older birds until the new ones are laying, that would be a viable option. You would then need to cull or rehome the old birds (not likely to happen). Or you could set them up with their own coop or even integrate the younger birds with the older ones.

Some folks do an all out/all in approach: cull the old flock, then start a brand new flock. the benefit to this is less likelihood of disease being carried forward into the new flock. But if no disease issues, that's a non issue.

From an economic standpoint, it makes the most sense (imo) to start some new chicks every year, or even every 2 years. That way you have some seasoned layers who are giving you some nice big eggs. And you have some pullets that are laying the pee-wee eggs, but you can be assured that they will have their best production days ahead of them. So, every year, you add a few, and remove a few. This is my management style.

It would not be ethical to simply turn them loose into the field. First, there is the responsibility factor. If I own an animal, I also own responsibility for it's care from the moment it enters my life, till the moment it draws it's last breath. Also, feral chickens will be attractive to predators. After the predator eats those chickens, he will move on to your laying flock. And feral chickens can become disease vectors, or migrate to the next farm, where they become some one else's problem.

agree and def. wasn't planning on letting them 'loose' just seperating them into a different area.. sorry i obviously wasn't clear

 

[kristens]

If you start a new flock, and keep the older birds until the new ones are laying, that would be a viable option. You would then need to cull or rehome the old birds (not likely to happen). Or you could set them up with their own coop or even integrate the younger birds with the older ones.

Some folks do an all out/all in approach: cull the old flock, then start a brand new flock. the benefit to this is less likelihood of disease being carried forward into the new flock. But if no disease issues, that's a non issue.

From an economic standpoint, it makes the most sense (imo) to start some new chicks every year, or even every 2 years. That way you have some seasoned layers who are giving you some nice big eggs. And you have some pullets that are laying the pee-wee eggs, but you can be assured that they will have their best production days ahead of them. So, every year, you add a few, and remove a few. This is my management style.

It would not be ethical to simply turn them loose into the field. First, there is the responsibility factor. If I own an animal, I also own responsibility for it's care from the moment it enters my life, till the moment it draws it's last breath. Also, feral chickens will be attractive to predators. After the predator eats those chickens, he will move on to your laying flock. And feral chickens can become disease vectors, or migrate to the next farm, where they become some one else's problem.

thank you. yes we were adding for a few years then 20 ish seemed to be a lot so we haven't bought new for about 3 years... and they def. are healthy and not 'dying' so we just stopped buying new and now they all are older.. so that was why i was curious... and adding additional right now just seems too crowded (not the space outside as we have over an acre... but the coop itself isn't huge (10x16 ish) so i don't want to cramp their sleeping and laying space.. and i def. won't turn them loose - i would build another area that seperates them from new.. or unfortunately side with the hubby and cull... but wasn't sure if anyone had any experience with keeping non layers around...thank you for all your information!

 

[bobbi-j]

thank you. yes we were adding for a few years then 20 ish seemed to be a lot so we haven't bought new for about 3 years... and they def. are healthy and not 'dying' so we just stopped buying new and now they all are older.. so that was why i was curious... and adding additional right now just seems too crowded (not the space outside as we have over an acre... but the coop itself isn't huge (10x16 ish) so i don't want to cramp their sleeping and laying space.. and i def. won't turn them loose - i would build another area that seperates them from new.. or unfortunately side with the hubby and cull... but wasn't sure if anyone had any experience with keeping non layers around...thank you for all your information!

Keeping them or not is totally up to you. There is no wrong answer. For those with limited space or resources, keeping nonproductive birds just doesn't make sense. If you have the space, though, and wish to add on and get more birds, go for it! What you don't want to do is over crowd them. That opens the door to a whole lot of problems that you don't want.

The reason I asked whether or not you were going to let the others loose is, some people actually think that's an option. I have seen threads where they think it's "kinder" to "release them into the wild" (or some similar such nonsense), when in fact, the kindest thing to do would be to put them down.