As the article in last weeks Magnolia News stated, "Domesticated chickens will live an average of eight years. A healthy hen will produce eggs for two years..." Which leaves us with the other six years.
What Seattle Tilth and other chicken enthusiasts fail to address, is what are you going to do with your chickens when they no longer lay ? If you get eight chicks/hens at the same time, they will lay and then stop laying at about the same time.
Then what - are you going to dispatch them (cut their heads off, ring their necks, take them to your veterinarian for humane euthanasia) - or just continue to keep them as pets until they become ill years later, and then dispatch them (cut their heads off, ring their necks, take them to your vet for euthanasia)? That could be six years of pet chickens and no eggs (unless you go for the stewing hen option).
You can only have eight (previously three) total at one time, so you can't get more until you resolve what to do with the ones you have. Have you prepared yourself and your children for the option you will choose?
I had three hens that laid for two years. I cared for them for another three years (longer than I got eggs!) In the end they each became ill and were euthanized. The part with the eggs was great - the part without the eggs was less great.
- Julia N. Allen[[In-content Ad]]
