What happens to your chickens when they get old and stop laying?

[Featherland26]

I am curious as to what you do when your chicken has reached the end of her laying life.

 

[RHRanch]

They stop laying and freeload off of me until they die.

But seriously, I have a pair of 5 yr olds, still laying and I had one hen lay up until her 9th year. I have some broodies that lay kind of seasonally and only when they want to hatch something (Thats when I pull the old switch-a-roo on them!

) Sometimes I sell breeding birds that I don't need anymore for my projects, but I sell them young so they are still useful to most, and often they go to other hobbyists.

 

[ranchhand]

I don't eat chicken, so I just let them live in peace. For that reason I am careful to keep my flock at about 20 or less. I do lose some to predators, so I hatch some and rehome the roos to make a good dinner for someone else!

 

[Fred's Hens]

They feed a large family I know that really needs the help it provides.

 

[chickens_in_the_ghetto]

Ours haven't reached that time in their lives yet, but ours will wind up in the dumplin's pot, or sold, post butchering and plucking, to soemone who likes organically raised partial free range soup hens.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Ours will live out their days here with us. We can have a maximum of twelve chickens and we have six. In a few years when the older girls start slowing down we'll get the next six, and let the cycle run it's course.

 

[duckinnut]

They become my grandmothers Jewish penicillin.

Hey wait a minute, I'm not Jewish.

But you get the point.

 

[DanyyChicken]

I plan to keep mine till they die of natural causes. I'm hoping they will make it easy on me when the time comes and they just fall off their perch while sleeping. I have a feeling it won't happen that way but I'm holding out hope. They are still young so hopefully I won't have to think about it for a couple of years.

 

[Kassaundra]

Mine haven't reached that age yet, but ours have a full retirement plan. We use our chickens in our garden too, so even if they slow down on the laying they will still be good gardeners. We do eat chicken, (just not our girls) and when we first got our girls I had grand plans of raising some for meat, but a couple of forced culls do to injury that I am still having nightmares over put a quick end to that thinking.

 

[anderson8505]

Quote:
Awesome post & signature, I agree!