Who's Laying!?!?
Hey Ya'll!
We are trying to figure out which of our chickens are still laying. We have quite a few older birds and the eggs production is getting less and less these days. We have separated a couple and going to see if they are laying. Does anybody have any other advice for us to figure out how to tell if a chicken still lays eggs! Thanks for watching!
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Process of elimination...good plan! Also I'm with the other commenters here...if the hens don't provide eggs then into the pot they go!!!
You may be right!!
I have done many workshops on what to look for in hen that's laying or not laying. But the basis for what I teach comes from this:
http://goldenoakfarm.us/CullingLayers/CullingFarmPoultryLeaflet.html
This is a leaflet from 1922 that I put up on my website. Photos aren't great, but they give you an idea of what you are looking for. Maybe I will do a post soon with better photos.
Thank you! That is very helpful!! Would love for u to do another post on that!
howdy there @thefarmerswife! so the question is, what happens to the hens who aren't laying, they get eaten? That's pretty cold ya know. Probably have them named and everything. lol. Very efficient, I don't know how else you could tell but then I'm not a chicken guy. Ya'll have a lively place with such a variety of animals though I like the sounds. God bless you all(even the non-laying hens!)
We haven't decided the answer to your question yet lol! God bless you sir!!
ha! those poor girls! hey I think you should make a post if it happens that way, make a shock post. one minute here's your cute little girls and the next is the chopping block and you end the video with fried chicken at the dinner table! lol
The leaflet that @goldenoakfarm is an excellent resource. I remember my granny just being able to look at a chicken and tell if it was laying or not. If they weren't laying, into the chicken and dumpling pot they went!! If your chickens are more than a year and a half old they may slow down laying or have stopped depending on the breed. Granny solved the problem by killing off the chickens in fall and starting fresh in spring. But I like eggs all year round. So we have different batches of chickens so when they hit that year to year and a half stage we bring in new ones, the old ones to the dumpling pot using granny's recipe! LOL
That's a good idea. I get new ones about every 6 months, but I don't know how in the heck to tell them apart!
Granny used to have two separate coops with runs. One for older birds and one for the younger birds.