What do you do with a hen who is done laying?

[Beekissed]

Lots of guilt loaded into those suggestions....

I get that from everyone who asks what I do with my chickens who no longer lay...."How can you eat your own chickens?" or "How can you kill something you've raised and taken care of for so long?" Matter of fact, a lady asked me that today...claimed she was an animal lover and could NEVER kill one of her own animals.

Yet...she can eat chicken raised commercially.... how "loving" is that towards animals? Let's see....a chicken that lives a free ranged and healthy life in the sun and fresh air, cared for by hand all its days, stress free living at its best....and given a quick, humane death and is repurposed for human food...

OR

Raised commercially with all that includes....how cruel can one be? Just because one did not raise those chickens in one's own backyard does not mean they do not deserve to enjoy their lives on this Earth.

So...for all the people who slide those guilt-inducing comments like "well...I could never do it...but each to his own...." into posts, do you eat chicken? Ever? How did it live? How did it die? Was it free and healthy, lived out a life of purpose and usefulness until it no longer was productive? No? Then maybe its time to rethink what cruelty to animals really means.

Even leaving a chicken to die of "old age" or "natural causes" doesn't mean a chicken just goes to sleep one day and never wakes up. It means it may suffer from organ failures, painful conditions or just grow sick...and then die. The end result is always the same...why not give a good bird a quick end after a great life? Chickens do not know the passage of time, so dying at two years of age or at ten matters not a bit in the animal world.


For the OP, you can always can up an old layer and it makes the meat very tender and ready to use in soups, casseroles, etc. Old layers have the best flavor to their meat and make the best soups.

 

[MakNugget]

Came across this site on BYC a while back.

http://www.freewebs.com/professorchicken/timelineofachicken.htm

And this, also from that site:
"
Every year, hen will lay 80% of the eggs she laid the previous year, so assuming she laid 200 eggs in her first year then the pattern would go like this:
First year: 200 eggs
Second year: 160 eggs
Third year: 128 eggs
Fourth year: 102 eggs
Fifth year: 82 eggs
Sixth year: 66 eggs
Seventh year: 52 eggs
Eigth year: 42 eggs
"

As you can see, it starts making little economical sense to keep layers past 2-4 years. At year 4, you're looking at 2 eggs PER WEEK compared to 4 per week.

I raise my girls for many reasons but one key obligation is eggs. Their purpose is to be layers. If I'm no longer receiving an adequate return in the form of eggs, I'll continue to raise them as meat. I have no problems with this because they are and will continue to have the best life I can provide for them. When it comes time to see them on a dinner plate, I'll extract every bit of nourishment out of that bird that I can manage through my culinary skills.

I only get to have three at a time, so the tough part would be deciding which one to keep and which two get replaced, as well as figuring out if I want to bother processing myself for just two hens or have someone else do it.

 

[3rocksandme]

We haven't even gotten our first egg yet and my DW has informed me that they're pets and I'll be running a poultry retirement home.

I'm naively clinging to the notion that it's still open for negotiation.

Same in our house. I'm for not eating my girls, he is, well, on the other side of the fence.​

 

[3rocksandme]

Hmmm, seems like there are 4 of you in your house, I'd think 2 young hens (6 months to 2 years old) per person would lay more than enough eggs for the family. If you started with 8 chickens and got 8 more every 2 years for 40 years, you'd end up with 168 chickens at that time-if none of them died in 40 years. 2 acres is plenty!!

But plenty of them will die in 40 years of natural causes. Let's say half die, so you have 84 chickens. So you can get a few goats, too!

On a serious note, I based that math on what most people say - egg production drops to levels that make it not cost-effective to keep the hens after 1.5-2 years. Mine retire because for now I can afford it (and I'm vegetarian), but that's not the case for everyone. If you raise your own meat at least you know the animal was raised humanely, more than we can say for the factory meat in the stores This is really the hardest part of raising chickens...but worth it

We are a family of four, we currently have 16 chickens, though 8 are still in the brooder. They haven't even started laying yet. I'm a worrier by nature and everyone keeps asking us are we going to eat them? He says yes, I say no... But then I thought I love fresh eggs, and I think I would like to have fresh eggs always but can really keep retirees and layers?? I think we could afford to feed 80 chickens without issue, it's housing them all and the smell that has me a might bit worried. While we do have 2 acres, it's heavily wooded. I'm not sure how much we have cleared maybe 3/4 of an acre? And clearing that has been a nightmare (this is where goats would come in handy, if only my husband would let me get some), I think if I ordered more cleared for the sake of keeping retired chickens that he wants to eat he might have a melt down.

Then my thoughts went to, at least I know these girls had a full and spoiled life, so maybe it would be okay to eat them. They lived well, maybe it would be better to go at 3 or 4 than if you lived to be 10 and had kidney failure and was half blind etc. They ate what chickens are supposed to, and lived a good life for a chicken, so wouldn't a happy chicken make a happy dinner for the animal at the top of the food chain? Even then, what to do with retirees once they pass? Chicken graveyard? I don't think that one will fly.

I've come to the conclusion, I've got the horse wayyyy before the cart. One day at a time and when I get to that bridge we'll cross it.​

 

[maryboland]

Put up notices that they are available as free meat to anyone who collects them live. There are needy people who will take them, slaughter them, and be glad for a free nourishing chicken stew. That's what I plan to do. I couldn't bring myself to eat them, but neither could I afford to feed them with no return.

 

[PhlyinPheBee]

All of my hens have names and are pets. Eggs are just a perk!!!

 

[turbo13]

Its Like Culling Grandma, Because Shes Too Old To Bake Cookies.

 

[sunnychooks]

I rotate 1/3 of my flock every year so that I can bring in the new ones. The older ones are 2 1/2 years old at that time. I sell eggs so production is important to me and I do not keep older or unproductive birds.
I first try to find homes. There are plenty of people who want a few pets that will provide a few eggs. I make it know IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that their best laying years are probably behind them. Many people don't really care.
The ones that are left go to a livestock auction. I would like for all of them to end up in someone's backyard but if they can't, I feel that providing sustanance for someone's family is a worthy end.
I do feel bad about it, but there can't be life without death. There are no "right" ways to end this discussion so you need to do what you feel is best for you.

 

[Jmurcks]

Quote:

 

[gritsar]

A hen never entirely stops laying. Egg production just slows down as they years go by. My DH has never asked what I will do with my now 2 and a half year old hens when their production slows down. It's either a.) he understands that they are my pets or b.) he isn't the tough guy he says he is and couldn't eat one of my girls anymore than I could.
The "big girls" as we call them will live out their lives here; regardless of egg production.
So....I have 31 half grown chicks in a new coop. Twelve are assorted layers ordered by me (supposed to be 14 but one died on day two and one turned out to be a rooster). Add to that 18 broiler chicks that were dumped on me. There are 10 pullets out of the 18 and they will be raised as layers and/or as long as they live. This is the same way DH's late mother got her layers, culls from the commercial houses. The other 8 are cockerels and I plan to keep two. This leaves me with an extra 6 cockerels.
I have asked DH about culling these, knowing that they have lived alot longer than they would have in the commercial house and they've had a good life. He won't do it and has suggested I ask a co-worker of his about taking them; proving yet again that DH is not the tough guy.

I imagine at some point in the future our garden space (roughly an acre) will be filled to the brim with coops for layers, retired layers and assorted mutts and strays.