Hunny Do Ranch
Well-known member
Anyone know of any good forums for poultry??????
heres 2 chicken forums i use backyard chickens on ezboard anbackyard chickens.there are 2 boards but use the samename.Hunny Do Ranch":2v5qlruc said:Anyone know of any good forums for poultry??????
sstterry said:13-year-old thread? I hope Hunny Do Ranch sees this.
Cornish cross broilers... 42-45 days in commercial houses. They will live up to maybe 2 years but most succumb to leg problems within 6 months due to them growing so fast and heavy.Dave said:13 years..... Just what is the life expectancy of a chicken?
farmerjan said:Cornish cross broilers... 42-45 days in commercial houses. They will live up to maybe 2 years but most succumb to leg problems within 6 months due to them growing so fast and heavy.Dave said:13 years..... Just what is the life expectancy of a chicken?
Layers in commercial houses... usually 2 years then killed as production goes down. Most will start to lay at 20-24 weeks, pullet eggs going to large size within 2 months, then will molt out at about a year, no eggs for approx 2 months, the 2nd year of lay eggs will be bigger, large to x-large and often some jumbos depending on the breed.... then get killed for soup/chicken salad type stuff at the end of that laying cycle.
In the purebred/show chicken world, and those kept in home flocks of all different breeds; the average age is anywhere from 4-8 years. Different breeds have different longevity. Production falls way off after the second or third year. Have had several purebreds live to 8 or more, some laying only a few eggs in the springtime, but the purpose was to get eggs to set to raise more of the bloodline.
Again, pet chickens fare the best but still only about 4-8 years.
It was a joke Jan, not a serious question. i have worked in and/or with the poultry industry a lot in my life.
As for old laying hens going to chicken soup. I worked with a layer farm that runs 950,000 layers. When they are done, they gas the entire house, and load them into refrigerator trucks. The birds go to a mink farm where they are ground whole (feathers and all), put into tubes, and fed to the mink. They claimed that there is no market for old laying hens.
The normal age we hope for in the purebreds is 5 yrs being able to still get viable eggs for setting.
Then of course there is the interference of mother natures' predators.....
farmerjan said:Sorry, Dave, I didn't realize it was a Rhetorical question....
Interesting about the laying hens and feeding the mink... Guess that is as good an option as any for that number of birds. Here close to many of the towns and cities with greater numbers of ethnic populations, the older FAT laying hens are desired for soup and such at the poultry swaps. But neither is there those kind of numbers.....
I worked on a small layer operation as a teen in Ct.....3-5,000 layers. He hatched all his own chicks and all.
Redgully, God bless that silkie bantam at 20. My son has had several of his standard size Old English Games live into their teens....
farmerjan said:Sorry, Dave, I didn't realize it was a Rhetorical question....
Interesting about the laying hens and feeding the mink... Guess that is as good an option as any for that number of birds. Here close to many of the towns and cities with greater numbers of ethnic populations, the older FAT laying hens are desired for soup and such at the poultry swaps. But neither is there those kind of numbers.....
I worked on a small layer operation as a teen in Ct.....3-5,000 layers. He hatched all his own chicks and all.
Redgully, God bless that silkie bantam at 20. My son has had several of his standard size Old English Games live into their teens....