What happens to layers when they stop laying~WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS

[Beekissed]

question: the third older bird is still consistently laying an egg every 2-3 days. We believe she is about 4 years old, but have no way of knowing for sure. Would you also cull that one due to age, or wait till she slows down laying?

If you can afford to keep her around and she's maintaining good conditioning, you could wait. She sounds like she's still got good laying cycles going on. If you have replacement hens enough and don't want to carry extra birds through the winter months, you could cull her anyway.

I like to keep the older hens who are still laying around if I can...they make great broody mamas and help keep a steady social structure. I go by general conditioning and laying status in deciding to keep a gal around.

Keep in mind, unless you are broiling or frying your birds, the skin isn't likely needed. If they are older birds, broiling and frying are not likely to be the best way to prepare them. I never pluck any longer, as I never utilize the skin....skinning is expedient and faster than having to have hot water and a plucker or plucking by hand.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks @Beekissed !
She seems very healthy, and is not aggressive toward any of the other birds, so we'll probably keep her then. We're not super concerned with how many eggs any one chicken lays, especially this first year. We're just trying to keep them healthy and happy, and to get a good foundational flock started.
So much of what we've read is generic stuff. When researching, it can be hard to find a little "meat on the bones" sometimes. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience (both + and -) with us.

You are quite welcome! Not much in any books out there about real chicken keeping...just the USDA approved version of what to feed, water, bedding, cooping and fencing of chickens. Happy to be of help.

If you are also a member of BYC, here's a thread that will be good reading if you have the time...many old timers on there with good, old fashioned advice about chickens.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...nd-lay-some-wisdom-on-us.605260/#post-7971451

 

[CrealCritter]

I don't want to be mean to my chickens so I rotate them every year in the fall. None of my hens are more than a little a over 1 1/2 years old now (spring hatch) and now that it's cooled off a little - I'll be processing them pretty soon. My layer yard rooster is going on 2 1/2 years old now though.

 

[Hinotori]

Stupid hawk tried to get a hen a few days ago. Well actually the hawk succeeded but I heard the screams and ripped open the back door yelling at the dogs to get them since I thought it was a coyote. Hawk hadn't been able to carry the hen far and I saw it and started screaming "Goose" which is dog command to run to that area and chase off birds. Hawk saw the dogs and took off.

The hen only had minor wounds to the wing and a lot of plucked feathers. The hawk seems to have killed her anyway. All the stress and now she's acting egg bound and won't eat. I'll give her until tomorrow to see if she passes it. If not I'll put her down.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Sorry...

 

[Beekissed]

I don't want to be mean to my chickens so I rotate them every year in the fall. None of my hens are more than a little a over 1 1/2 years old now (spring hatch) and now that it's cooled off a little - I'll be processing them pretty soon. My layer yard rooster is going on 2 1/2 years old now though.

Not too sure it's being mean to a hen to let her live past 1 1/2 yrs of age or not. A production hen, maybe, but not a simple heritage breed hen that's still laying in regular cycles during the year. I keep mine for as long as they will produce eggs in the spring flush, molt and then return to laying sometime during that year, regardless of age.

 

[ChickenMomma91]

For you folks who have hens die but never open up your birds to find out if you can see the reason why, I encourage you to do so if you ever want to learn, really learn, about chickens. I know it's gross and especially if you really liked the chicken, it's hard, but it's worth it if you will ever learn how to prevent illness, suffering, parasites, etc. in your flocks.

Here's another hen that was kept well past her laying life by my sister, who will NOT kill a chicken, even when they are suffering horribly...she just keeps them for years until predators get them or they die of illness related to aging out of laying. She's had a LOT of birds die over the years and never had a clue as to why, though the descriptions she gives me of the symptoms prior to death, all were preventable by just culling her flock on a regular basis. Oh, she'd try to give them antibiotics and such and sometimes that extended their life a month longer, but eventually the reproductive issues caught up with them again.

Death is death and all creatures will die~us included~but being able to control the nature of the dying is the gift a human can give their animals. It's called stewardship and it's our responsibility, once taking on the care and life of another creature, to insure they have a good life and a good death.

This hen had severe reproductive cancer that had spread throughout her abdomen, was attached to all her organs and even the walls of her body cavity. When she arrived here I noticed her comb was purple, she had a massive abdomen and she was gasping for breath, but she died before I could even give her the hand of mercy.

View attachment 4737
View attachment 4738
View attachment 4739

View attachment 4740

I lost a chicken this past spring, she had laid a double yolker a week or two before we found her dead in the yard. I can't do necropsy because I live in town and it would fall under butchering to the city officials who are buttholes.

 

[Beekissed]

I lost a chicken this past spring, she had laid a double yolker a week or two before we found her dead in the yard. I can't do necropsy because I live in town and it would fall under butchering to the city officials who are buttholes.

I'm not one for encouraging law breaking, but the officials don't know if that chicken was ripped open by a predator or by you....opening it up and looking inside after it's dead of an unknown cause is NOT butchering, by any stretch of the imagination. That's like saying folks who open the hood of their car and look at the engine are mechanics and can strip that car down into pieces and build it back again.

Unless they are by your side every second of every day, I'd find a private place and look inside that bird. Of course, it won't do you much good if you can't butcher your birds before they get to that point, so it's pretty moot. If you have to kill one that is suffering, do they consider that butchering as well? If so, I'd not bother to have chickens...it's cruel if you can't help them out of pain.

 

[baymule]

Yuck! I have never found anything like that when I butchered old hens. But then, to me an old hen is one on her 2nd molt.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That is a gnarly looking liver for sure!