[looe-looe-belle]

Hello everyone!

Just wondered as I am a novice....what do you do when your hens laying either slows down or stops altogether....do you still keep the hens....or do you cull them 

My thoughts would be to keep them, however, if space is a problem and you want eggs....where do you go from here?

I will only be keeping up to 6 hens, so will feel like they are my pets...sort of!!....

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Pretty Chick]

I've 20 chickens altogether and intend to keep them all once they've stopped laying as we see them as pets  . Some have stopped laying already and we'll let them live their lives until they die naturally, but I'm sure other people do differently  .

[Kelloggs]

 

  All my girls are part of the family, if they stop laying then they can just relax and enjoy life
  They all have names and I wouldn't even consider culling any of them or my boys

[Pretty Chick]

  All my girls are part of the family, if they stop laying then they can just relax and enjoy life
  They all have names and I wouldn't even consider culling any of them or my boys

Exactly the same as ours - they're all named and we will never get rid of any of them, even the boys! 

[Jeanette]

I could never cull any of mine they are family.

[joyfull]

if space allows then they stay as pets and go into a well earned retirement, however I have no problem with people culling them if they can't find a home for them (so long as they are not ex batts - which when you rehome you do so on the understanding that they are pets and not for eggs - eggs with these are a bonus and not to be expected). The method of culling though must be quick and stress free.

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi again Looe-Looe -Belle

Birds need to replace their feathers each year, and during the moult they will stop laying anyway. This does not mean they will never lay again.  If it is a hybrid it will get its moult over with and then within 6 weeks or so will be back in production.  

If it is an old fashioned breed, where looks have been selected for rather than production it may not lay again until the spring, but traditional breed hens will live and lay for a number of years.  I recently read that hens can live for 30 years   and will lay to around age 18, though I cannot vouch for the truth of that statement.

The hybrid hens which will lay up to 320 eggs a year will burn themselves out and many will die the first year, though the survivors can last for many years.

What you do with a hen after it has stopped laying is up to you.  If it has become a pet, then just keep it as a pet and be grateful when it gives you an egg - after all what do you get from your cat or tortoise?  On the other hand more than 800 million chickens are raised and killed for meat in the UK alone each year, so if you ever do ever eat chicken it might be better to eat one that you know has had a happy life, rather than kept in the semi gloom for 42 days then had its throat cut.

These things are value judgements and each person is an individual with different ideas about what is acceptable.  Whatever happens keeping chickens will make you think more deeply about all sorts of issues.

All the best
Sue

[woodburner]

Even in commercial free range flocks the hens are kept for a second season. I think the normal practice for them is to have young birds coming into lay for the first time as the older birds go into moult, or are culled. This can be done with garden chickens as well, but may limit you to commercial hybrids, unless you (or your supplier) knows when to hatch birds to come into lay when you want them to.

Another possibility, is to have something like silkies that are known to be good winter layers. You don't get so many eggs, but as, individually, they start and stop laying so quickly, collectively the supply is more regular. You would need more hens to get the same number of eggs in a year though.

I've got LS and silkies. The silkies are for hatching and rearing mainly, but are pets, too, as well as supplying a trickle of eggs all year round. The sussexes need to work harder for their keep. The oldest are in their second season, and I am considering a three year replacement cycle, but only if laying drops significantly in the last year, or I am really desperate for space, like, if I get really lucky with hatching, and no-one wants to buy the surplus . . . 

[GrannieAnnie]

We try to re-home our older girls, but if not they are culled to make room for the next lot of POL's.

No good trying to eat a spent hybrid, no meat, and the older pure breeds would need stewing for a long time!! 

[Sassy]

it's down to personal choice!

[Junie]

I always intended to cull and stew VERY slowly, I have 9 girls, our rooster turned aggresive a couple of months ago and he made a lovely coq au vin, but we raised him from an egg in an incubator, and it was not a easy decision, so I do not know how we will feel when the dreaded time comes.  My main difficulty is that I do not know which hen lays which eggs anyway and would not know who had stopped laying.

[Craig69]

My main difficulty is that I do not know which hen lays which eggs anyway and would not know who had stopped laying.

This would be my thought, & getting it wrong would end up making you feel guilty.
My girls will stay until natural causes takes them.
Will have to sort out a retirement area for them when the time comes