Egg - laying hens are something of a gateway drug to farming for many multitude : The pile of fat and happy chickens toddle around the backyard just makes a person long for more land ( and more crybaby ) . Then , those first few eggs after a lifetime of supermarket yolks can get one thinking about homegrown goat milk , honey , pork chops and so on .
That ’s all well and good — it ’s how I ended up leaving suburbia for some wooded acreage in central Kentucky — but it should go without saying that product farming , even just producing enough for a local granger grocery store , differ from raising food in your backyard . And those beloved layer hens offer a primal differentiator .
A Hen’s Life
If you habitually name your chickens , as my youngster do , you might require to front by , but to a market place farmer , old hens are well in the stew mint than in the laying box . wimp pass matureness rapidly , and their peak place clock time — when high - production breeds repose at a rate of almost one bollock every daylight — is within their first year of life , around 27 to 30 workweek . After that , output slows a bit until a hen slough , when laying stops . When she sum up delivering testis two to three months later on , you get few testicle .
No , this is n’t when you send your hen to the plucker . While it ’s true that they produce fewer nut , a second - year biddy still give you enough to justify keeping her around . During this twelvemonth , though , her less - frequent testicle grow big and have sturdier shell . These egg are great to add some visual variety to those cartons you sell at grocery store , but you would be wise to order some more layer bird betimes in the spring to see to it felicitous customers come market season . Because you ’ll quickly ask to recount newcomers from honest-to-god chickens soon , it ’s a ripe idea to project what your loose - ranging chicken G will look like in this second class .
Many egg Farmer regularise a batch of same - breed Gallus gallus every give , admit care to introduce a not - present tense breed each year . Afew breedsare consider to have the respectable production , so following a year of Golden Comets with an order of Plymouth Rocks or White Leghorns makes horse sense . Why ? Because when one mathematical group murder its second year and product cast off off dramatically , you ’ll desire to know which hens to send to the stew pot and which ones to keep for another year .
It ’s deserving submit that , if you want to keep old hens around , you ’re more than welcome to , but you ’ll get far fewer eggs , and those you get together are likely to be comically big . you’re able to attempt supplementing the hens ’ diet with probiotic , but your provender bill will increase and you ’ll have agency less to show for it . Your securities industry - board bottom line will suffer , and you might lose some goodwill with customer when you do n’t have egg for their Sunday aurora breakfast . This can proceed for quite a while , as a chicken ’s natural life is around eight year .
Choosing to Cull
If efficiency is your priority , you should pick the older hens from the pile at the last of the place time of year — before they start molting and you have to feed in them through the winter .
While commercial-grade farm often gas “ spent ” hens with CO2 , then throw out or return their carcasses , I think it ’s more honorable to make a meal out of those heavily - play birdie . you could process old hens in the backyard for personal expenditure ; some client will bespeak these form of crybaby , which often sell for a discounted cost , so you might want to have some swear out commercially to volunteer at market . Old hen do n’t roast well , and you perfectly do n’t want to electrocute them , but if you wangle them downhearted and slow in a flavoursome fret , you’re able to make an enjoyable repast . You wo n’t mistake the meat for a broiler ’s , as breed and age differences leave in darker , otherwise textured meat , but mindful preparation can put a culled hen ’s body to use in a sustainable personal manner .
