What do vegetarians do with unproductive laying hens?

[Chicktastic]

We keep ours and even take in some older hens from folks without much land. Our old ladies freeranage and clean up bugs. They are also in charge of the compost heap and manure piles. They turn it and really help it break down. We found that out by accident. Bug control is another important job they do.

If for some reason you cant keep them anylonger you could think about finding them a home with someone who would let them do this sort of a job. Stables love chcikens beacuse they really help keep things clean. Poop piles and bugs are just gone!

 

[luvmychicknkids]

I plan to add a few new hens here and there to keep up the egg numbers. Honestly, right now with 7 laying, I have too many eggs!!! I just plan to make sure I never have too many to take care of.

I guess you could say my family is actually on again off again vegetarian.

We don't eat meat unless we have a humane source (and right now we have a bunch). I would love to raise meat chickens some day but they will be fast growing birds for that purpose that we won't get so attached to them.

 

[chickensioux]

Yup, pets for life

 

[jmcinnes34]

I get between 15 - 20 ready to lay hens to add to our coop. That way we still get the eggs we want every year and our "old girls" live out there lives happily. We just put the new birds in with the old ones and they do fine. We have a population of about 50 birds and we have a few that die over the cold winter but we keep the coop temp comfortable as to lose as few as possible. We just culled our first sick bird and we have had chickens for years. We don't find it much more expensive to keep them around when we have a large number anyway. Especially in summer they free range and hardly eat a thing.

 

[lilbirdee]

I am so glad that the subject of bug control was added to this discussion. This is the main reason we considered get chickens in the first place. We have alpacas and lots of poop and want to reduce the bugs without using pesticides. The eggs that our chickens give us are just a bonus. So when our girls stop laying they will continue to have a viable function here on our farm.
I will add that I am a vegetarian, but although my husband is not I don't think he would attempt to eat anything that I have named. That would surely be grounds for divorce.

 

[crazychicken]

I am not a vegetarian , but since I hatched and raised my babies I rarely eat chicken. usually it is just when someone else cooked it and I do not want to seem rude. mine have not stopped yet in fact they just recently turned one year. I look forward to having them for a long time. and when they stop or slow that will be ok because we will keep them for, company, any eggs that they give us, and one thing I have not seen mentioned on this thread is fertilizer. we grow our own veggies and when we clean out the coop it goes on the plants. last year our tomato plants exploded. we were even picking fresh tomatoes in the middle of December. those plants just flourished, and out lived all of our friends. it is the only miracle grow we use

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Actually, I think quite a few people just keep the old ones and add a few new. I have had older hens that still produced. They weren't quite as productive as their first year, but adequate.

 

[SeramaLife]

We keep ours until they die naturally. We have some 9 year old jersey giants that haven't laid in years.

 

[Kelly G]

Our local butcher will (for a small fee) butcher & process the chickens and then Metropolitan Ministries (and others like it) pick up from them once per week all the donated meat.

I've decided this is a solution that I can live with, and that's what I'll probably do. I cannot kill or eat mine, but I have to be practical as well....I cannot have 100 chickens running around and getting only 4 eggs. It doesn't make any financial sense.

But (I think) I could do it to help others who need a hand.


ETA:
Check back with me in two years when my layers are passing their prime...as I'm still loving, feeding, cleaning up after, shoeing, veting, spending $200/mo to feed, and worrying about our 26 year old quarter horse mare who has not one useful bone in her body left - she gave everything she had for so many years...she will be here until the day she has pain that can't be managed. She deserves that...

Here's our grand lady in her prime:

And here she is just before Christmas this year:

 

[Kelly G]

PS I forgot to ad that Daisy hates chickens (they try to eat her feed) and she wishes they would all disappear to Chic-fil-a!

Here she is giving the evil-eye to chickens on the ground:

PS sorry if I hi-jacked your thread!