Finding Contentment

The chicken Nugget

When we got our six chickens, every member of the family (and my son's best friend) were allowed to name one. I named mine "Big Mama" because she seems to be at the head of the pecking order of the flock. These are laying hens and because we have so few (and because we named them) we don't plan on eating these. But as a joke, Mark named his chicken "Nugget."

Nugget ended up being the most docile. She loves to sit lay on Mark's chest, close her eyes and take a nap away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the flock.

There are only two problems. One: I recently read a book that said the "inactive" chickens probably wouldn't be good layers. Bad Nugget! lol And two:  According to the same book, hens are only really productive layers for about two years, and then they don't lay enough to justify their feed bill.

So I ask you, since chickens can live 10-20 years, what are we to do with these chickens when they are no longer productive layers? The whole point of getting them was to help us become more self-sufficient and not have to rely on mass-marketed eggs. But these are rapidly becoming pets. Are we out of luck after a couple of years?

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11:15 AM, Tuesday, May 8, 2007 .. Posted by JubileeFarm5

what you say is true about layers. They can go longer than 2 years laying well though. Typically what ends up with them is the stock pot for soup. They aren't tender anymore for much of anything else. We will run into this problem before too long ourselves, and I am not keen on eating old chickens...
Melanie