Older Chickens That Stop Laying / Slow Down Laying Eggs

[Nifty-Chicken]

Footnote: A lot of my friends know I own this site now and ask what type of people are on the forum... chicken lovers or chicken eaters. They are amazed when I tell them both and everyone respects each other's points of view.

So, my two cents: I haven't yet had to deal with this, but this is how I'll probably do things as they age and stop laying: Out of our 7 girls, one Delaware is pretty friendly so we may keep her for a while. We have out RIR / blk Aust. mix that was our very first chicken, so we may keep her. The rest... it all decreases from there. I could never cull them myself, but I probably won't mind giving them up to someone else (after they have stopped laying) to do with what they please... don't ask, don't tell.

Well, I'm probably at least a year away from having to think about making a decision and our feelings may change by then.... especially as my daughter gets old enough to name them.

 

[HenHappy]

Nifty

Naming them will make it harder! lol

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

My wife and I will eat our free-range chickens, we will not eat the store bought and raised chickens. My wife doesn't like a chicken with a lot of fat. She will feed it steamed rice and hold back on the feed, which she says makes them fat? She will cook them in a pot whole afterwards make a soup from the broth and butcher the chicken. We enjoy raising chickens and we realize that with proper care and feeding a chicken will produce eggs for a long time, we will keep our favorite egg layers, which so far have been our leghorns and sex-links. We don’t see at them as pets but respect people who do.

 

[bayareapilot]

My hens are pets and that they happen to lay eggs is simply incidental and 'icing on the cake'. At no point do i murder my hens. I love how humans come up with words like 'cull' or 'collateral damage'. Humans love to create words to hide the nakedness of their killing.

They get old and pass. Egg laying seems to drop off after about 5 years with my hens but there are with me to the end - no murdering for me.

 

[LeeHoll]

So, what did you end up doing?