How long do chickens lay

[BigM]

for real. In my initial research I thought I read "up to" 5 years. My birds are about 2 and production has dropped. I thought it was the stress of moving and being messed with by dogs and pigs. When I mentioned it to a fellow chicken herder (haha) he said that's about how long any of his birds have laid. What have been your experiences??

[Granny Smith]

I've had them lay as long as 6 years. Really, I've never had one live long enough to go through henopause. Of course, I always let them have their normal break in laying. They make up for it in the spring.

[Valerie]

Pearl is 5 years old and she's still laying. She's our oldest chicken. We just sort of have chicken attrition, somehow, and we haven't really had one live longer than that to see. I've heard of chickens being like 15 years old and still laying an egg once in a while.

My older chickens slowed down a little bit after 2 years, but they still lay pretty good. We usually get 7 eggs on sunny days, from 12 hens. One of our easter egger hens only lays a few a week.

[Cyngbaeld]

Give them some animal protein, not soy, and they will kick in again faster. Moving will throw them off for a couple of weeks.

[BigM]

Should I throw some hard boiled eggs in the mix you think?

[joanfromzonesix]

Feb 19, 2014 21:05:50 GMT -5 Valerie said:

 I've heard of chickens being like 15 years old and still laying an egg once in a while.

that's true - but around here you can't get anyone to eat those old eggs -

[Cyngbaeld]

M, hardboiled eggs are ok, milk is good, insects, chopped meat, whatever you have that is cheap. I knew someone who always stopped and picked up road kill to throw in the pen, but I never could bring myself to do that. If you are feeding scratch or corn chops that will lower their overall protein intake so you don't want to do that. Some people feed cheap dry cat food.

[BigM]

No corn or scratch. I need to make one of those fly breeder things to hang in there. It's been on my list forever.

[Cyngbaeld]

Are you going to do the black soldier fly thing, M? I really like those. You can grow them in the manure from the chickens, you just have to make sure the chickens can't scratch it up.

[Valerie]

When mine were dragging out their molt, I got one small bag of Manna Pro Calf Manna from Tractor Supply and gave them a little bit each day. It's pretty high in protein, and OK for a lot of species. I think it really helped get those feathers finished and get them back to laying.

[BigM]

What an interesting idea Val! I never thought to look at other feeds!

The fly breeder I saw was in Country Livin. You essentially hang scrap meats and parts in a basket and the birds eat the larvae that fall out.

[Cyngbaeld]

I've read about those. You'd be better off giving the meat scrap directly to the birds. Look up info on the black soldier fly. You don't have to find meat scraps to use, they will reproduce fine on the chicken litter you will already have.

[BigM]

I use a tractor so there isn't a pile, that's why I think a set up that moves with it would work better for us.

[Valerie]

Black soldier flies will also reproduce on chick starter that has got wet. I found that out last time I had chicks in a brooder. I dumped their paper and all on the compost pile. A week later, my compost pile had been reduced by about 2/3 and was crawling with 'larvae' (sounds much better than maggots!) I scooped them up by the shovelful for the chickens!

A guy posted a thing about his larvae feeder in Countryside (might have been the same guy). He had a piece of an old tire tube hanging down from his, so the chickens could bump it and jiggle it and the snacks would fall right out for them! It was pretty nifty.