How long will hens lay

What should I pay for full grown laying hens?

Recently, I have seen many people selling 2 or 3 year-old laying hens for $10-$15 dollars apiece. This "re-homing fee" seems a bit outrages to me. While it has been published by McMurry Hatcheries that you should price a mature bird for resale based on the purchase price, plus feed & medications used, plus 20%. All I can say is "Buyer Beware." Before you decide to purchase a bird from someone I have the following advice.

Heritage Hens will lay productively 2-3 years. Your guideline to the laying capacity of any mature bird that you purchase or raise is that a 2 year-old hen will lay 65% of her first-year production. This continues to decline as she gets older. While hens can live up to ten years and technically should be laying 20% of her first-year production the reality is that this rarely happens. Much depends on the breed, environment, and quality of feed that has been supplied through the years. You should also investigate the breed of chickens because their potential laying production depends of the breed of chicken.

Additionally, new buyers often don't realize that birds will molt. This is a condition where they will lose some or much of their feathers and this is a natural and expected process. Your hens will not molt until they reach about a year and a half old and this process will last 2 to 4 months. Also, realize that they do not lay during this process. After the molting is done, they will resume laying, but production will naturally be reduced (production decline is noted above).

As for Production birds, they are bred to produce a lot of eggs fast and usually begin producing at 4 to 4½ months where Heritage Hens do not begin producing eggs until 5½ to 6 months old. This means Production birds burn out fast and will often lay only a couple of eggs per week after 2 or 3 years.

New flock owners should realize that each bird and breed will have a distinct personally and are a joy to watch. They make great pets and are a good tool for teaching children the values of care and production. Make sure you evaluate the reasons for purchasing an older flock and be aware of their limitations. On our farm our 3 year old birds are left to roam the farm regardless of whether or not they are laying. They are great at reducing the bug population and they supply many hours of silly antics that make us laugh.

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