What do you do with chickens that are done laying eggs?

[WoodlandWoman]

You can also sell them on Craigslist, if you can't agree on what to do with them. You can either do it later and sell them as stewing hens or do it sooner and hope they get bought as layers.

 

[Jeeper1540]

If she want to keep them as pets and you want to eat them, i think you should let her keep them as pets, because it will be much worse on her if you butcher them than it will be on you if you dont

 

[Runfox]

Well thanks for the input everyone. I guess what we are talking here is how to manage your flock basiclly. That is for us that have more than just a few as pets. We have 11 hens and one rooster. We are getting about 7 eggs a day now. My wife is so cute, she loves having the chikens now. They are fun to watch when we let them roam the back yard , I call them the bug patrol. She is all excited with the idea of selling a dozen eggs to friends. So Im just thinking about what we want to do with them as they get older. So I had no idea they start to slow down as soon as 3 years, wow, that's a short laying span I guess. What's a normal life expectancy for chickens anyway?
I enjoy our chickens for sure, but we definitly got them for the eggs, so I'm not sure about buying feed for 12 chickens down the road , when they arent laying eggs. I see people with all kinds of animals like ducks, geese, goats, rabbits,etc, and all I see is a lot of expense and feed for pets. I talked to one lady that had all that and she would take them aound as a petting zoo basicly. So they earned their keep that way. I cant quite justify the cost for just pets. Besides you get too many animals and then your tied to your house and cant go any where. We bred dogs, Jack Russels, been there, done that.

So what do you all do to manage your flock then? I mean when they start to get older, at some point I guess I would let a hen sit on the eggs or incubate them to get chicks to replentish the flock right? I like the idea of moving the older chickens to a seperate place to manage a mulch pile. THe dropping would fertilze and the chickens would get bugs and such. The resulting mulch would be pretty good.

As for butchering them, if they start to lay less eggs around 3 years, thats not too old to eat then, they wouldn't be tough would they? Thats what my wife was saying.
Akane are you saying you have to butcher the rooster if you hatch your own chicks??? I dont understand that?
Whats the best way to riase more chicks anyway? Let the hens sit on the eggs to hatch or incubate the eggs to hatchling? THen as they get bigger , when and how do you introduce them to the flock with out problems?

 

[greenSearcher]

You may be surprised that by the second molt you have very few of the original chickens left. At 6 months I had my original 12, 10 pullets and 2 roos. First to go was the BR roo, he was just plain mean. Then I lost one marans to heat and shortly there after one vanished to an assumed predator. I had to cull one that was injured and didn't recover. Then I lost an EE to heat. Found the EE and my SS in the coop on a horrible hot day, and I lost the EE before I could rehydrate and cool her. I saved the SS though. So when their 1st year came, I had 6 of the original 12, of which all the hens will be added to the new flocks. The SS roo will be culled, I haven't had a fertile egg during his watch as head roo. There are about 8 babies in the 30+ babies, and 5 will be retained for breeding, the others will be harvested.

If I ever get to the point where I have too many birds for our family, I will sell birds for raw feeding, but I will butcher them for the buyer. I just couldn't sell my chickens after having them several month or years to a possibly violent death, I would do the deed myself with love and respect. I can't imagine the horror of being live food.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Originally my plan was to eat them as soon as egg production started to drop off. Now I realize you can sell a layer that is still producing at 1.5 to 2.5 years for more than the cost of a tender young meat bird from the market. No problems with plucking yourself or salting the bird with tears. Have 4 children at the house

Knowing what birds I want now that my first flock are about to start laying I'll be raising those starting in the spring and sell off mine prior to next winter. Still have a learning curve to overcome with this venture but believe that will be the rotation. One year of eggs, always new flock raising over summer and selling off the year old layers for those that need more birds in their winter coop. At $10 to $15 per bird that covers the cost of new pullet/fertile hatching eggs and a tender meat bird from the market.

As for my flock management: Best year of egg laying and cute new chicks for the kids each spring

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Originally my plan was to eat them as soon as egg production started to drop off. Now I realize you can sell a layer that is still producing at 1.5 to 2.5 years for more than the cost of a tender young meat bird from the market. No problems with plucking yourself or salting the bird with tears. Have 4 children at the house

Knowing what birds I want now that my first flock are about to start laying I'll be raising those starting in the spring and sell off mine prior to next winter. Still have a learning curve to overcome with this venture but believe that will be the rotation. One year of eggs, always new flock raising over summer and selling off the year old layers for those that need more birds in their winter coop. At $10 to $15 per bird that covers the cost of new pullet/fertile hatching eggs and a tender meat bird from the market.

As for my flock management: Best year of egg laying and cute new chicks for the kids each spring

 

[teach1rusl]

By three years of age, they'd still be pretty tough...not for roasting I'd think...just stewing. Keep in mind that most meat birds are killed around 3 MONTHS, and dual purpose not much later than that, maybe 20 weeks or so??? And the rooster comment meant that if you hatched chicks, you'd most likely end up with at least 50% roosters, so those would pretty much HAVE to be processed (early) due to logistics...

 

[Carols Clucks]

We have one OLD hen, guessing about 10 years old. She seems to be boss hen now that we "lost" the young roo and combined the flocks. She is an EE and we just added 5 more young EE's, guessing that now that the EE's out number the rest, the 5-6 year old RIR (?) hen is not top hen any more. The RIR hen was MEAN as top hen, even took on the old Roo, glad to see her and her "baby" moved down a few notches.

I like the guidance of this old lady hen, she has seen many new comers and seems to be more welcoming to the new gals. She has a home for life and would not consider eating her, but if we did...boy is she FAT under those scraggly old feathers.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Soup is good food!

 

[Beekissed]

As for butchering them, if they start to lay less eggs around 3 years, thats not too old to eat then, they wouldn't be tough would they? Thats what my wife was saying. They will still be tough at this age but you can still eat them, as mentioned before. Older birds definitely have more flavor...just cook them in a way to promote tenderness.

Akane are you saying you have to butcher the rooster if you hatch your own chicks??? I dont understand that?
Whats the best way to riase more chicks anyway? Let the hens sit on the eggs to hatch or incubate the eggs to hatchling? Either or both. I let my broodies raise replacements but one can also incubate at the same time as a broody and slip the chicks under her when they hatch. Or you can just brood them as per usual with a heat lamp.

THen as they get bigger , when and how do you introduce them to the flock with out problems?You pen them where the flock can see them but cannot touch them for about a week or so, then, if you free range, just let them join the flock one day. If you don't free range, most folks put them on the roost at night along with the big birds but in a lower roosting position.​