What did you do with your old hens that no longer lay eggs?

[fishnet1971]

My girls are like children to me, I could not care less about eggs, I don't eat them anyway! I could NEVER eat any chicken let alone one of my own

they are intelligent, affectionate, dear little creatures. They have a home here with us forever, could not imagine life without my gorgeous girls.

yea, that's me too now. What? no 'Bird to pick on me?????? would not be right.

 

[Kaeta44]

Mine haven't reached that stage yet, but when they do I shall let them have a happy retirement as a "thankyou" for all the eggs they've given me in the past.

 

[v.cyr]

Just wanted to comment that the key is to NOT name them. Getting rid of them will be much easier that way. My 3 yr old grandson named all 11 of them Sally and are now down to 7. These are our first also. Their home will be permanent. Hopefully, we'll just call the ones to come, here chick, chick, chick. Lol

not naming them doesn't necessarily help... my GF's uncle names one out of every 10 or so of his birds( the ones with the most distinctive personality's), but he can't bring himself to butcher any of them, nor will he sell any to anyone he thinks might... I think the key is how you view them... if you think of them as pet, regardless of if you name them or not, you won't be able to do it... and even if you view them as livestock, it should never be an easy thing to do... if it is, or ever becomes easy or something you look forward to doing, you need to seek help...

 

[mamabigbird]

I have 4 old matriarchs that will live out their days naturally.
In winter they are coop insulators.
I have 19 hens in total ... I started out thinking 5 birds would be a nice manageable number. LOL
Luckily I have a good sized coop and several acres of free range space for them.
For people with small coops or by-law restrictions on flock size ... you have a difficult decision to make at the end of of laying.
Try to find breeds that live long and lay eggs for years.
Some sex link breeds stop laying after only 2 or 3 years.

 

[brahmamomma]

I am keeping mine as pets. my in laws neighbors moved from california and brought their 17 yr old hen with them!!! hahaha cracks me up! love it!

 

[mong7769]

We will process ours eventually. Well or I should say 'have them processed'. I'm not sure I am quite up to that yet. I may get there. Nature will take its course one way or the other and to me they are enjoyable creatures to share time with but in the end they are food. Just my 2 cents.

 

[4urbanchicks]

Wow- I never thought this post would garner such a huge response. I could never process my hens, too attached to them. My only option would be to find a home for them with enough room that they didn't need to process them either, just could keep them as pets. However, we did get them for eggs, and so at the point that they are no longer laying we don't have the space to keep them and get new hens. Right now, I basically in denial and just hoping they will lay for a long time so I don't have to deal with this soon! On a happy note, two of my hens started laying again this week! They stopped for about 3 months during the winter, but they are back to laying again, so whooo HOO!

 

[PtldChick]

Some places have animal or chicken rescues that will take them in. Not many people want them for pets "without" benefits.

Here in Portland there is a chicken rescue place, haven't been there, but see their ads on CL.

 

[4urbanchicks]

Some places have animal or chicken rescues that will take them in. Not many people want them for pets "without" benefits.

Here in Portland there is a chicken rescue place, haven't been there, but see their ads on CL.

That's interesting, since I am not that far from Portland. What is CL?

 

[FrizzlesRule]

Mine are forever pets. Even if they live 13 years seven months and five days like my Silver Polish did. I've had many hens live past ten years and actually some of them did lay a couple of eggs a month.