What breed(s) do you have. I don’t recognise the early passing and neither that my Dutch stop laying eggs after 4 years. My 8 year old still laid eggs last year. Just less eggs and the rest period in winter gets longer when they age.
? Im not sure at all about this statement.
My chickens (old heritage breed) didn’t lay 300 eggs a year, from point of lay as some productive layers do. But the production layers often die at 3-4 years old. The second year the don’t lay as much as the first, the third year even less. Maybe they...