Layer: a hen raised to produce eggs.After 2-3 years, laying hens outlive their usefulness. Their egg production drops dramatically, sometimes they start eating their own eggs. They just don’t carry their weight any more. I don’t like dressing out chickens myself. Fortunately I live close to a Mennonite family that will dress them out for stewing hens. In an urban setting if you don’t like dressing them out yourself and you can’t find someone to do it for you, what will you do with your spent chickens? This is something that one should think about before investing in the time and money involved in getting chickens.
~Dale Maurice Johnson
4 comments:
I still haven't decided! I don't want to end up with a bunch of chickens that don't do anything but eat so I'll probably have to do something similar to what you've done. I just don't think I could do it myself!
I think I am in it for the long haul. My two hens are pets and I think just like my 10 year old dog who can no longer run with me I am in it for the long haul with my animals. I've also always said that I won't eat what I can't kill myself (yes, if I am starving on an island with my two kids I would kill anything- but that's not my reality right now) and so I am left with seafood which is just fine by me. I respect and understand others opinions and ideas- I am just sharing my own.
Hillary, I think we can all respect that. I had a really difficult time giving away my first three chickens when they reached 2 years old, it was just a few weeks ago and I still miss them.
We have 12 chickens. 3 are roosters, 8 hens, and 1 Chick that we don't know about yet s/he is only 3 weeks old. But we plan on keeping our chickens for their whole lives. Plus every couple years we plan on adding a couple more to the group. I don't feel that just because they don't lay eggs that they deserve to be dinner. I feel they deserve the right to grow old gracefully just as we do. I know a lot of people do cull their chickens and get knew ones pretty often.
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