Spent hens

[Cindilong]

Hello! I bought a lot of new pullets last year and this year. Last year despite having around 35 hens at any given time, I was only getting 4 to 14 eggs per day. I realized that a lot of my hens are pretty old. So I decided to try to figure out which ones are spent. It's been my experience that when you move a hen she sometimes doesn't lay an egg the next day. I have a little area set up that I'm putting the hens in one at a time, the ones who I think are the ones I've owned the longest, and I'm going to give them a few days to see if they are still laying. How many days do you think I need to give them for a good trial? I figure the first and second day they might be freaked out, but then if they don't lay eggs on the 3rd and 4th day, is that long enough to know? I've been keeping chickens for 17 years now and I've never attempted to figure out for sure which ones are still laying and which ones aren't. I know I have a few out there that are at least 7 years old, maybe 8.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I would do 10 days and see how they do if you wanna be sure. That way you get a feeling for how they lay over the course of a week.

 

[Rammy]

https://thehomesteadinghippy.com/how-to-tell-if-a-chicken-is-still-laying/

Heres a site that helps you figure out whos still laying.

 

[Cindilong]

https://thehomesteadinghippy.com/how-to-tell-if-a-chicken-is-still-laying/

Heres a site that helps you figure out whos still laying.

Thank you I didn't understand the 2 fingers or 4 fingers part very well but I'll try it on some and see if I can get a feel for it. And if they're still laying, even if I check them at night, their vent should look moist? Very interesting, I've never even thought to look it up as I never cared before because I used to only have a small number of hens and I knew them all by name and they were all my friends. Now we've ramped up production quite a bit and I have no idea who's who and I need to be careful about feed cost.

 

[aart]

I didn't understand the 2 fingers or 4 fingers part very well but I'll try it on some and see if I can get a feel for it.

This might make it easier to understand:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

BUTT(haha!) the pelvic spacing will only tell if a bird is actively laying or not...won't tell her potential for future laying. Tho this time of year might be good time to test, assuming you are in the northern hemisphere when all healthy birds should be laying.

Separating birds can be time consuming and the stress of being separated, especially singly, can really have an affect.

How to manage your laying population for efficient production can be tricky and depend on many different factors. Won't go into that now.