I have an Americana/Buff Orpington hen that is 5 YEARS old and is still laying! I had a suspicion that she was starting to lay again and sure enough I had 4 green eggs yesterday as opposed to 3. The other 3 were from her 3 daughters. This is a pic of her. I'm beginning to think we're under estimating our chickens and getting rid of GOOD layers too soon. All of my hens layed over the winter except her, she takes the winter off! LOL!
Susan
Just asking... and ducking.. I really didn't know they stopped laying that young
If they don't lay at five, what do you do with them?
My disclaimer, I would think after 5 years you would be a little attached to the girl.. not to mention.. wouldn't she be tough?
Now my common sense says.. if you have space for 30 chickens, and 15 of them are going on 5 and non layers.. well those youngins are not going to be supportoring the ladies???
I can really see where culling would be a tough thing... something I really hadn't thought that far ahead about.. I really thought they laid until they were 100 or so... ;-)
No frans, Most people only keep their layers for ONE YEAR! I think that's crazy. As far as toughness goes, you would stew them. Have you ever heard of a stewing hen? All it is is an old hen that's stopped laying. I give my old ones to a lady that has a Hispanic lady friend that she gives them to for her family. We've done the chicken butchering before, "been there, done that" never again! :-(
Susan
We don't cull our hens after one year, but do after two. We found out that if we didn't, our production was cut by more then half. Since we sell eggs to help defray the cost of feed, we do need to keep a viable flock.
Ok, now I have even MORE questions.. I will start a new thread for this one.
i have had ours for about three and they are still laying an egg a day somtimes two
Wow lucky! l've never heard of a chicken laying two eggs in one day. ln my raising chickens book it says it takes 24 hrs to produce the egg. Your name luckycharm_1 really fits!!
Susan
there is occasion when it can be two, or be a double yolker. when the sun begins to go down, the hens biological clock stops the laying process, and it will pop out the next morning. if another egg was nearly ready, it can pop out later that day!
keep in mind lucky is from Australia where they hold the world record for egg laying. must be something in the water LOL
i am thinking it is close to 25 hours for egg rpoduction. that is why a hen will lay in the morning for a while, then late morning, soon it's afternoon, then she skips a day... with a good flock, you get half the eggs in the monring and half in the eveing, most of the time, till they switch over, so to speak...
i have hens laying like nuts that will be two years old March 20th. they are Buckeyes. they are big enough for the pot, but that is what we have roos for, LOL
i figure with all i invest when they are chicks, the time, the electricity, the chick starter crumble, and all the other, being careful to raise them organically, that i need them to lay more than just two years! i don't mind the young pullets supporting the older hens. and they are such good foragers that their feed bill is only high in the winter. so i don't mind if they take the winter off so they can lay well again in the spring and last more years.
i guess i am more into longevity than production... we are just a small home-farm. not a poultry plant... just MHO
tf, you're too funny! l have to agree with you about the longevity.
granny, how do you cull your chickens? lf they're only 2 don't you think you're culling eggs that you can be selling as well? l sell eggs too, as long as the girls are laying l'm going to hang on to them.
Susan
just a thought, if you are raising heritage or other pure breds, you are more interested in longevity. if your goal is production, commercial breeds will suit you better...
Gardener, I cull that AFTER their second year. I get them in the spring...they start laying in the fall...go the next year... and when the new ones start laying (in the 3rd fall), I cull the older hens. So, I guess it is three years, not two. So Sorry.
As to how we do it, we cut their heads off...:o))
To mark them, I use spiral bands on every other flock and also on the ones I am raising for the freezer. Of course the roos don't get banded, I know which they are..LOL
granny, ROTFLMBO!!! To the point!
Well, I never learned how to grab them by the head and snap them to break their neck, so we do it the easy way. (It's called being lazy)
Now, the roos are another story. I am thinking about getting rid of Bruno. (not really) He is the most vocal rooster I have ever heard. Not only does he crow all day, he crows all night. Can't seem to shut him up!!!
Hey granny, like the commercial says..
"you mean sleep like you did before the rooster went blind?"
Yep. Eggsactly!!
But he must have heard me type that. He was relatively quiet today. Maybe he is growing up( hope, hope, hope). He'll be a year old on April 9th.
granny, he sounds like a child that has learned to talk, once they start you can't shut them up either! LOL!
Susan
Well, only having had one child, and she turned 52 last friday, I actually didn't remember about that. But Bruno is like a kid who has just learned to talk. You CAN'T shut him up. (believe me, we've tried)
granny, I guess you'll have to come up with a rooster MUZZLE! LOL!
Susan
lock Bruno up in a sound proof hen house...
anyone see the Grit article i posted?
tf
TF, I saw where you posted it, but didn't get a chance to read it. Might try that later this afternoon.
i have had 2 eggs i 1 day about 5 times
i have a four year old hen who lays pretty much every day she is my oldest chicken. she was my first chicken as an adult (always had them as a kid). you do get attatched. i first got her i was chicken sitting for a friend when all his hens decided to eat her. i took her home washed off the blood in the sink (there was alot) and made a little crate for her in my cellar where she lived with 35% of her body covered in scabs. until one day i heard a terrible racket and thought she was dying. ran down the stairs and there she was and there was this great scab laying on the ground. she was so happy! later that spring i saved a pregnant alpine dairy goat off a dogfood truck but when i took her home to the shed i had built her she would not eat or come out or drink water she was so terrified. everytime a dog barked she would roll her eyes and flatten her ears. after two days of having this heavily pregnant goat refuse water and food i was beside myself so i put my plucky little hen in with her. the hen just snuggled right in next to the goat and that afternoon the goat got up and began to drink and eat water. a week later she gave birth to 3 kids. i saved the hen and the hen saved the goat. they live together now and forever but when i go into the goat pen to feed i always find an egg.
What a wonderful story! That hen is very special. Did you keep the kids?
(I assume the pregnant goat had her babies?)
I have three old hens that live in the back of my barn. They don't like going
outside, which saved them from the fox this spring. They are probably 4-5yrs
old and I get 1 egg a day (or every other day) right now.
yes my pregnant goat had 3 babies last spring and all were boys so i did not keep them but managed to get them all to good homes as pets not dinners. i bought another little kid a nubian boer cross whos ears were so long that they dragged on the ground. she was going to be raised as a meat goat so i bought her for cheap but she's half dairy so were going to see what she can do next year. in the mean time she is keeping my alpine warm at night and annoyed all day ha ha. so now my favorite henny has 2 girl goat friends. don't know if my alpine is pregnant this time. took her to the buck in december but just cant tell. maybe more little kiddies in may... im never bored.
i hope you do i have been thinking about getting my sheep mated can they be to old do have babies
yes i think so. my friend had a couple of "used goats" and kept trying to breed them and it just never took. our conclusion was that they were too old. i know goats can be bred for about 10 yrs. don't know much about sheep. they probably have a season like goats. maybe you could have lambs next spring if you take them this fall. they babies sure are cute. nothing like kids or lambs playing around. cuter than puppies. really.
mine are 2 so i think im in the clear i thought they only lived to lik three ore somthin boy was tha a bad guesstimate
I still don't know if I quite believe it but my cousin told me they can live
into the 20's. Is that possible???? (She's the one that gave me my start
in chickens and she's been raising them for a long time).
i read that somewhere. but they have to avoid an awful lot of predotrs to make it that long!
Would it be in the Guiness Book of Records? Might take a Google and see if it shows up somewhere.
funny, at first i thought you said Guineas Book of Records, i was thinking i didn't kno there was one!
i need more coffee! that baby had a tantrum before dawn! little chickies are so much better behaved LOL
google for us, granny!
Matilda, reputedly the world's oldest chicken died of heart failure at the age of 16 on August 10, 2006.
The average age for chickens is seven or eight years old.
So, no, they don't live into their 20's.
