Options for non-laying stock

[jmpurser]

We have 4 chickens that I've identified as non-laying or nearly non-laying and we don't have room to keep retired chickens. We're looking at a local chicken butchering service but these were good girls in their day and I think turning them into dinner is a poor reward for all their hard work.

Has anyone come up with good options for retirement? I thought I'd put up an ad on craigslist to see if anyone was interested. Any other suggestions?

John

 

[Fred's Hens]

Even if people don't wish to do the processing themselves, they can often find local, needy families, people with the know how to clean the birds and would welcome the food. That, to my way of thinking, is precisely why we have chickens. They provide us food. If dispatched with swiftness and sureness, it is a fitting end. Circle of life, kind of thing. Slowly dying or wasting away until there is no benefit to anyone is always another option, but it makes far less sense to me. Feed costs are heading higher and higher and feeding a bird that provides no productive benefit seems a waste of precious feedstock resources.

I grant you, my views are agrarian and agricultural in make up. Different folks have different views.

 

[CAjerseychick]

We have a place here called Animal Place-- is a sanctuary for farm animals and they would take your hens-- they rescued several thousand layers from a ware house that had been left to die -- no food or water for TWO WEEKS-- found most of them good homes and kept the rest. Its what they do.Maybe they have a place in Washington that is similar.

 

[donrae]

I've gotten rid of older hens on craigslist easily---course that was before feed went up this year. Some folks just wanted some older yard pets and took a dozen 4+ year old birds and one rooster.

 

[schrunk11]

I'm sure someone will take them if you post them on craigslist. Lots of people just like to have chickens as pets. I've known people who would just sit in a lawn chair and watch them for hours.

 

[Sunnysimplelife]

Fred's Hens I am a total city girl and totally agree with you. Here I am allowed only 3 hens and I have four right now. If I keep them forever I will be looking at feeding hens that don't lay much because I cannot add with my smallish yard and city restrictions so that is what I am going to do. I see them as pets but more as a source of healthy eggs and good compost and feel old school about it like you. Feed is already rising her in SoCal.