Australorps : If you are looking for high production, even into the fifth and sixth years, and calm dispositions with friendliness and personality to boot, you cannot go wrong with Australorps. These little black hens received praise from many longtime chicken owners. Known to be magnificent producers of light brown eggs, they are a breed that is easily handled. They can become pets that perch on your shoulder and will make their way into the house to see you, if you leave the door open.
Dominiques: Very close in appearance to a Barred Rock same roots , these calm little black-and-white striped hens are known as one of the oldest breeds in America.
Not quite as productive as many Barred Rock strains, they are still excellent layers of light-brown, medium-to-large eggs. They received excellent ratings for not only longevity of lay five to seven years , but also hardiness and resistance to disease.
Buckeyes: Similar in appearance to a Rhode Island Red, but a totally separate breed, Buckeyes garnered many accolades. Excellent rates of lay, longevity of lay, hardiness, and disease resistance were just some of the praises sung about this breed.
ISA Browns: While the ISA Brown is a fairly modern laying hybrid developed for commercial brown-egg production, these little hens received excellent reviews and praise from small flock owners. Originally developed in France at the I nstitute de S election A nimale in the late s, they are a production strain, of closely guarded genetic secrets, available to both commercial egg producers and home-based small flock owners.
Also known as Hubbard Browns, they received praise for high rates of lay, longevity of lay, and sweet, curious personalities. The only downside reported was a potentially weak immune system. Turkens or Naked Necks: Responding owners of these unusual-looking birds praised their dispositions, hardiness, consistent brown-egg-laying abilities, and longevity of lay.
Add in their uniqueness and the questions they will generate, and they appear to be a winner for almost any flock. As an additional note of interest, Turkens in Australia have been bred to produce blue and green eggs. Usually mixed-breed birds, sold by the hatcheries, that will lay blue, green, olive, or sometimes brown eggs. Then look into these possible reasons for fewer egg counts. Ultimately if you are feeding a complete layer feed during peak egg age and season, you can expect breakfast laid daily from your flock.
Ready to bring your egg counts to the max? Jacob, H. Wilson, R. Miles, G. Butcher, and F. Accessed: 16 May Related Education Content. View All Backyard Poultry Education. And do egg counts change as laying hens age? Patrick Biggs, Ph. Popular egg-laying breeds likely to meet these goals in year one include: White Leghorn hybrids white eggs , Plymouth Barred Rocks brown eggs , Rhode Island Reds brown eggs , Blue Andalusians white eggs or Ameraucanas blue eggs. Dual-purposed breeds like Plymouth Barred Rock, Sussex or Buff Orpingtons will typically also achieve top performance.
Research from the University of Florida see Figure 1 shows estimated egg production naturally declines each year. Remember, most hens will naturally slow down in the fall and winter unless you add supplemental light for a consistent 16 hours of light per day.
You can extend the laying period for your hens by putting a light hooked to a timer in the hen house. This will give the hens a couple of extra hours of artificial daylight, but the natural pattern for most hens is to stop laying in the winter. Chicken lifespans vary widely, with most hens generally living between 3 and 7 years. However, with ideal care, they may live even longer. Taking responsibility as a small farm owner means accepting the full cycle of life.
Farmers do not bring chickens to vets in the same way as a family pet unless you have very few chickens ; most of us need to be prepared to handle both the births and the deaths ourselves. One option, especially if you have very few chickens, is to allow the older hen to contribute to the farm in other ways. You may also need to lower their roost for easier access and provide a little extra warmth and comfort.
Another option is to use your chickens as meat chickens instead of egg-layers. The more humane approach is to give them the winter off and wait. We never killed a hen simply because she stopped laying. Even if you decide to keep your laying hens until they die of old age, you will eventually have to dispose of a chicken. There are two simple ways:. There are a couple of ways to hypnotize or calm the chicken. Apply enough tension to the legs to stretch the neck and keep the bird in place.
Then use the axe. If you intend to eat the chicken, hold it up by the legs to let the blood drain. Dip the bird for 20 to 30 seconds. Afterwards, you can wipe the feathers off with your hand. Chop off the feet, then cut around the cloaca anus—chickens use the same opening for excretion and egg-laying , being careful not to nick the intestines, and scoop the innards out with your hand. Rinse with cold water. If you can get all of this done in 20 minutes while the oven preheats, you can cook the bird immediately; otherwise, let it rest for 24 hours, until rigor mortis relaxes.
Whether your chickens are ultimately intended for the table or killed simply to end pain or illness and then buried in the back forty, remember that this is your responsibility as a small farm owner. Welcome to our Raising Chickens Guide, a series of chapters especially geared to helping beginners! We cover how to get started raising chickens, chicken breeds, building coops, baby chick care, protecting chickens from predators, collecting eggs, and more.
The complete guide is authored by two poultry experts, Elizabeth Creith, and more recently, by Chris Lesley, a fourth-generation chicken keeper. Chris is currently teaching people all around the world how to care for healthy chickens.
We have found that hanging the hen by the legs with the head down calms them. They don't struggle at all. Then a quick cut with a sharp knife while holding the head severs the head. I use a cone. I put them in there, and let them relax.
Then I cut the neck off. Let the blood drain on a bucket. It is wonderful for the garden. I think that if they have time to relax, it makes the meat more tender. C O M' and get your doubts cleared. When you indicated there would be flapping when you chop a chickens head off is kind of an understatement.
That bird is going to go crazy and holding it by its feet is going to get you covered in blood. I've seen chickens flapping on the ground and just stood back until it calmed down. Cut the corner out of a plastic shopping bag and slip the chickens head through so that its body is firmly in the bag. Tie it off and finish the business. You can hold the chicken now and let it bleed out without getting covered.
Why do you not mention that chickens molt. They will loose lot of feathers which some times you may think there is some thing wrong but there is not. It is a natural chicken thing. Hens also go through an egg cycle. They will take a rest period and make the next years egg roe. The roosters also molt. A Chickens real lifespan is 20 years. But if you change their feed to their nutritional needs they will not only keep laying, they will live longer!
I said of course! Because what I really need them for is body heat to help heat up the coop that is far too big for 5 chickens. After much hem hawing by her and me promising not to eat them she finally agreed to bring them over. Two red sex linked hens age joined my little flock. One of them had adult pasty butt and one of them had respiratory issues so bad she was vomiting up loogies. They were both dull in luster with pale combs. I mix my own chicken feed from whole food I buy separately.
About a week later a strange egg showed up in the nest box. Hm I thought. Maybe a fluke of one already laying. Two days pass and another just like the first appeared. The smaller of the two grannies started laying again! I knew it was her because I walked past her and she squatted.
She has laid every day since then. The rounder of the two never started laying again. She got depressed. She starved herself to death. Unsure why. Before that though she started doing well. Grew more feathers. Foraged for bugs. But whenever I collected the eggs she would avoid looking at me. That perked her up for a couple more days. But then she just gave up. Poor girl.
I tried. The other one is shiny feisty bossy smart alert and perfectly content. Since then my pullets started laying so now everyone is laying! If you cut off the head, instead of letting it spay you with blood, have a box handy and holding the chicken by the legs with one hand, insert and hold the chicken "headless" first into the box.
What do you do if you accidentally nick the intestines when gutting the chicken? Is all lost, given the release of gut bacteria, or is there some way to "sterilize" the botched job?
You still haven't fixed the part on how to take care of the eggs you gather - how long they are good, etc. Part 5 of the series on raising chickens keeps coming up with the duplicate of part 6 if memory serves. Thank you. Thanks for letting us know about the broken link! This has been fixed. We raise both layers and meat chickens in large quantities. On butchering day we have a wooden frame that has 4 road pylons turned upside down, the top of each pylon was cut off.
Simply put chicken in upside down, pull head through the hole and lop off with a sharp pair of snippers.
We also put bucket under to catch what little blood and the head as our dogs like to get in it. It works really well. One of the reasons they stop is because they also have less hours to eat. IF they go into brooding near this time, it can be dangerous, since they lack feathers to keep them warmer. My recommendation is to set a light on a timer, as was stated in the article, BUT set it to come on AFTER they sleep for about 8 or 9 hours and then goes off by daylight.
This provides them with the opportunity to have extra nutrition during the colder days, yet rest enough. If the light goes on in the evening and turns off in the middle of the night, they may not be up in their place for roosting and cannot see in the dark. A 4 watt LED bulb is perfect for most instances. I grew up on an egg ranch in Southern California when chickens were in "chicken houses", not cages. We only ate our own chickens- either when they stopped laying or the very rare treat of a young rooster, a "fryer".
I never realized my mother was a wonderful cook until I became an adult and found out everyone didn't eat like we did. She slow cooked the old chickens actually in a "dutch oven" inset on a gas stove and made chicken and dumplings. They were to die for. I forget what else she made by slow cooking them but all her meals were wonderful. Chickens had metal "specs" on their noses so they wouldn't peck each other. Back in the '60's, in a non-urbanized section of Brooklyn NY, my parents had a few chickens for eggs.
One weekend they went upstate and came home with a half dozen white hens that they had gotten from a commercial egg farm. The old gals had the typically clipped bills and un-thrifty feathers you might expect from factory hens that have lost their worth as profitable egg layers. They had been doomed to whatever fate these older hens succumb to. I think Dad payed fifty cents per hen. Those old gals must have thought they had died and gone to chicken heaven! Turned out into our 8 x 10 shed turned hen house and having a 15 x 20 foot garden area to run in seemed to do the trick.
Within a couple of weeks we were getting 3 or 4 eggs a week from each hen. Not enough to make a commercial enterprise worth keeping them, but for a backyard flock along with other hens that we had it was more than enough to keep us and most of our neighbors in eggs for years.
Growing up, here was the wisdom imparted to me. We had some chickens, no eggs would they lay. My wife said, "Honey, we're losing money. This isn't funny. Why won't they lay? He caught those chickens right off their guard. They're laying eggs, now, just like they use-ta, ever since that rooster, came into our yard.
It's really funny, how those chickens lay. They've laid him away. But his son is making those pullets lay. They're laying eggs, now, just like they use-ta, ever since that rooster, came into our ya-a-ard.
I loved your share Paula. The part of the equation that I neglected to mention and had indeed forgotten was that we DID have a rooster in that backyard flock.
Might have made all the difference. What a great story! Those lucky ducks figuratively speaking. Well, it was really a win-win. So, we both learned about chickens from our fathers. I don't know if it was during the depression or when, but imagine how that would go over today, when I'm not sure you can even legally hang out laundry in your own back yard!
I'm grateful for organizations like the humane farming association. It was through them that I learned about factory farming.
I was mortified enough learning how America's laws for humane treatment of farm animals, going back to the 's, were flagrantly ignored; then I discovered chickens were excluded from that legislation, anyway! Well I love that your chickens got a new lease on life.
And I guess even with their bills clipped they had no problem scratchin' around. It made me smile to know they lived on for years. I have 9 young hens of different breeds about 7 months old and all have been laying well since July-August. About 3 weeks ago Cinderella, an Ameraucana now renamed Cruella! Moana retreated to the nesting boxes and started to become broody.
I was able to discourage the broodiness by constantly removing her from the box every couple of hours, over a day and a half, and removing the fake eggs I had in the boxes. The flock has since returned to 'normal', however, neither Cruella nor Moana have layed any eggs since their spat. All the other hens are laying, although production has slowed with the shorter fall days.
Any ideas on how to get them laying again I miss their green and dark brown eggs! I use a machetty instead of an axe , it cuts smoother and faster , also instead of plucking an old hen I skin them out like a dove, Start with a small cut on the underside of the neck and peel the bird out of the skin, quick and easy. Putting down chickens is difficult for me. The layers would just fall over from old age! The meats were easier because we did not consider them pets.
Still, I had difficulty eating chicken for a couple of months after the kill. Choose a cold day to do more than one hen. Have a hot tub for removing feathers - next to this a work table. Have a cold tub filled evening before to be really cold.
Have a cleaning table next to the chill tub. Have a second cold tub for rinsing and chilling the chicken. Have a third table for drying and wrapping. Begin at holding the chicken face forward under your arm and resting on your hip. They will usually go docile at this point. Then, grasp their head by gently brushing back the head feathers to just behind the head. Next firmly pull and twist your hand upwards quickly holding the chicken until it is still.
You should feel the dislocation of the head from neck. Holding until still protects the meat from any thrashing and you can take time to thank the chicken for being a big healthy chick. Lay your chicken in a pile near your hot tub. Kill several at a time and then continue. Pluck by rubbing most of the feathers off it is very easy and quick.
The wing and tail feathers are more difficult to pull out. I had to use pliers or let someone else do the tough feathers. Cleaning is easier because the blood goes to the vital organs, the head is intact, and the blood has congealed because of the very cold water.
Cut around the vent being careful to not damage intestines. Then remove the head. Reach inside the vent cut and gently pull out the offal and organs. The crop or gizzard is good eating as well as the heart and liver. Toss these into separate bowls or tubs. Then cut off the feet. Some peoples eat these in soup. Place gutted, headless, footless chicken in the third cold water tub next to he wrapping station. I used paper towels to dry out the main cavity and then the outside.
If you want skinless chicken, this is the time to pull off the skin with the paper towels. It is much easier this way. You can use masking tape to secure the last flap of the paper. Using an indelible marker put the date on the paper, not the tape because it sometime falls off. No need for hours of fridge time, but put them a few at a time straight into your freezer. No bleeding, no waiting to freeze, no hot messy guts, ether. We would get together with other friends who also raised meats and become an assembly line of working together and sharing.
It may take a time or two until you get a grasp on how much force is needed to dislocate the heads without ripping them off. Cheap bug control in the hen house I begin with a large rubber feed tub or use a small, plastic wash tub from the hospital. They can be found easily at thrift shops. To this I add some yard sand, a small handful f garden lime and a generous handful of wood ash. I have never had a lice problem in any flock.
I call this The Chicken Spa! I will be glad to try and respond to any remarks or inquiries. Good Wishes Also I am having problems with finding broken eggs. I have tried putting golf balls in the nest but they just push them out. If I gather them in the afternoon they are fine, if I wait till morning when I feed them they are all broken and mostly pushed out of the nest.
I am coming off winter with about 90 hens. I fed them all winter and had great egg production. I want to go to pasture "only", and plenty of room. I have stopped feeding them. They are grazing on pasture stuff and seem quite happy. I have watched their egg production go from about 3.
However over that 2 week period their yolk color went from yellow to deep orange, and my customers love it. How do I get volume back up? Surely the commercial pasture egg guys don't go through this. Your hens have probably recovered by now, but anytime you change feed you'll see a drop in egg laying.
You'll also need to supplement with feed while they are on pasture. To protect your pasture you should move them every couple of days. I was told that adding crushed hot red peppers to the feed would keep the hens laying.
I tried it, and they kept up the egg production through the winter. I kept some roosters too, although I don't know whether they kept the hens active and whether or not that might contribute to discouraging the girls from getting idle during the winter months. Why would you not have a vet put your chicken to sleep if she is sick or in pain? Wouldn't that be more humane? Mainly, expense? Vets charge a lot of money for an office visit, just to put a chicken to sleep.
Most flock owners don't have the money to pay for that expense for something they don't consider 'pets'. There are exceptions, but also, most vets are not avian experts, and don't know the dosages to give for a chicken's euthanasia, and they will look at you like you're an idiot, knowing full well that you should be doing it yourself.
If you can't kill a chicken yourself, then you have no business owning one. I have a flock of three year old red sexlink hens who began pecking each other during their first molt. More than half have bald rumps or backs.
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