Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Mumpty]

Hi all, I was just wandering if anyone knew how long chickens laid eggs for? I have only had mine for about 4 months and now we 5 eggs a day (1 from each girl) which is fantastic, but I was worried that they might 'burn' themselves out and in a year or two I'd be left with 5 chickens and no eggs and I don't want to keep having to buy more chickens while the others sit out their retirement, I don't have the room!!

[Egluntyne]

I have a couple of 4 year olds left....one lays, the other doesn't. They are hybrids.

[Hen Watch]

Not sure on chicken burn out. My 4 hybrids arrived April 2007 as POL so they would be exactly 2 years old now.

 

From when they started laying and all through last winter they consistently produced an egg a day. Last summer it tailed off and now I get 1 or 2 eggs a day. One lays softies now (despite worming & limestone flour) so I think she's coming to the end of her egg laying life.

 

Not sure if this experience is the same for everyone though. I don't have the space for any more chooks and I will look after mine into their retirement even if it means I have to buy eggs. But if there comes a time in the future that I can get more I think I would consider pure breeds next time round.

[RichardandFamily]

I have some hybrid hens that are 3 nearly 4 years old still giving us around 4-5 eggs a week and I also have some pure breeds that are also 3-4 years and they stopped laying around 2 1/2 years! I think it really does depend on the individual hen and the breed.

 

Richard

[kathryn]

Yes, likewise, my 4 year old bantams only laid a token gesture of eggs last summer. Not that they ever really laid that many anyway! I think that they secretly can't really be bothered, they prefer to just parade around all day looking pretty...

[sheik]

We have a speckledy hybrid who hasn't laid in a good few months

She seems happy but I'm a bit worried we won't get any more eggs from her at all, as by all accounts she should be laying through the winter.

Hopefully she'll start again in the spring.

 

/\dam

[helenmb]

I found that my original two girls I got when I first had my eglu layed for about 2.5 years and then went into their 'henopause'. So I now have only 2 hybrids (sadly not the original two) and the rest are pure breeds which I understand lay for longer but you get less eggs each year. I read a really useful article in a very old Kitchen Garden magazine which talks about this, about how long they live and also about keeping hens healthy. I scanned it and added it to my gallery as a PDF file so if you click here you can download it to read if you like. So long as you have Acrobat Reader - which most PCs have you will be able to read it.

[Mumpty]

I found that my original two girls I got when I first had my eglu layed for about 2.5 years and then went into their 'henopause'. So I now have only 2 hybrids (sadly not the original two) and the rest are pure breeds which I understand lay for longer but you get less eggs each year. I read a really useful article in a very old Kitchen Garden magazine which talks about this, about how long they live and also about keeping hens healthy. I scanned it and added it to my gallery as a PDF file so if you click here you can download it to read if you like. So long as you have Acrobat Reader - which most PCs have you will be able to read it.

 

 

Thanks for that Helenmb, very helpful.