Old hen question.

[big brown horse]

I have an old hen, my favorite RIR, Ruby. She started walking like she had arthritis last week and has been just laying around since. She moves around the yard (one acre) and eats. Puts herself to bed and comes out with the rest in the morning. She seems to take more rests than the others.

This is my first aged hen. Is this just normal signs that she is getting old?

I know she is over 3 years old, by how much I'm not sure, b/c I got her as an adult. I'm pretty sure she is over 5 though. Her egg production was dismal this spring and now she isn't laying at all. Where in the past she was a fantastic egg layer.

She gets to free range all day plus gets BOSS, scratch, and scraps.

I keep thinking she is going to die in her sleep, but she gets up every morning and makes her way outside to the yard. She seems alert too, when I say her name she looks right at me.

Oh, and she has an old broken toe injury from scaling a fence...toe got caught and she was hanging upside down when I found her. It is bent to the side now.

Just curious if anyone else has or had a favorite hen that was allowed to grow old. Is this just normal for an older hen? (I can't eat this one!)

 

[freemotion]

Yes, it is normal, and hopefully you will find her one day and think she is sleeping or laying one last egg and you will realize that she is not blinking or looking at you when you talk......and you will realize that she went peacefully, living her life the way chickens should. (RIP, Blue-blue!) Give her some of her extra favorite treats every day. You won't regret it.



Of course, she could go on for a LOOOOOONG time yet!

 

[big brown horse]

Ok thank you so much. I knew she wasn't sick, I just wanted some reassurance that she wasn't an outbreak monkey.

(RIP Blue Blue!)

 

[savingdogs]

I plan to do the same with the original hens we got first....I could never eat them. I hope they get to be old hens. A very lucky thing, for a chicken.

 

[Marianne]

My aunt had a hen that lived to be almost 8. She said that every once in a while she still got an egg. She was the last hen my aunt had.

I'll never eat mine. They will all have forever homes here. They still eat bugs, weed seed and I get free fertilizer and light tilling in the garden.

 

[Denim Deb]

Henrietta, Roxi, Ralph, Angel and Penny will be allowed to grow old and die. But, their offspring won't be as lucky.

RU has 2 hens that have been there since B4 I started going out to the farm. And, I've been going for 8 years now.

 

[valmom]

Our girls are 6 now- and have started laying again this spring (well, except for the one who has hit henopause and started crowing last year). Ours are pets and will live out their days snug in their chicken fortress. Ours are a bit slower than they used to be, but still healthy.

 

[i_am2bz]

Me too, I will be running a hen old-age home. I know someone who says he's had a few live 10 years, altho I certainly don't expect anywhere near that.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Henopause!

 

[patandchickens]

Just checking, you've gone over her feet carefully for any spots that could be bumblefoot, and checked to see how her joints and vent and weight are?

Would hate to chalk it up to just infirmities of old age if it were something fixable.

Best of luck,

Pat