Unsecure chicken perches

[siamang2]

Can anybody help? How old is a hen before they generally stop laying or things go wrong with their eggs?

[Snowy]

It depends whether your hens are purebreeds or hybrids. Hybrids will lay for 2 - 3 years, and won't live much longer. Pure breeds will lay less eggs per year, but for more years, and live longer - 7 - 8 years roughly.

[Olly]

I've had four gingernut rangers, and none of them went on laying much past 2, and in fact none of them made it to their 3rd birthday, sadly. Pure breeds tend to last a lot longer.

 

Bear in mind that battery farms dispose of their hens at around one year old, because they are no longer laying reliably. That doesn't mean they will stop laying altogether, but you can expect egg production to tail off a bit after the first year. It does depend on the individual hen, of course - some go on much longer.

[Jools]

My oldest were my Old English Game bantam who died of a heart attack this year aged 8 and my lovely Bitsa (Boss) who was over 10 when we had to say goodbye to her a month ago.