March 21, 2013 at 7:41 pm
#786144
herongrrrl
Participant
After keeping hens for about ten years now, I can tell you that the post-laying “retirement” doesn’t often last too long. Most laying breeds have been bred for short lives with maximum egg production, and in my experience they usually will die of natural causes not long after they stop laying. On a commercial farm, hens are usually culled after only one or two years. Our oldest hen lived to be about six, and gave eggs reliably for five of those years.