How Long Can A Chicken Live?

[Lazy Farmer]

I hope this is the proper category for this particular topic.
I have read a chicken could live up to 20 years in pristine conditions.
Never would have believed it. Sounds a little absurd.

Anyway, death and disease on a farm will desensitize you after awhile. You still have a small emotional attachment but the element of surprise diminishes. Especially from breeding swine and goats as well as poultry.
We have a designated graveyard for the less fortunate needless to say.
Family Pets are marked graves as well as or favorite animals we have taking a shining too!

WE LOST our LAST GREEN BAND HEN today.. The last of a legacy.

We have used tiny cable ties on all of our birds for about 15 years now. Colors are indicated on a chart for age, breeding, introduction, medicated etc.
Green Bands were the first color we started using 15 years ago.

She was a healthy, sturdy and beautiful full feathered Barred Rock. She became slow and isolated from the flock lately. Almost like a granny sitting on the front porch watching the grandkids play.
She was over a year old when we put the first green band on her right leg.

I buried her this morning in one of my old and worn out 4-H T-shirts dated back to the days we started with poultry.
Others when they pass I can usually handle it. This one watered my eyes.
She was never named all those years but we marked her grave "Green Girl". RIP.
One of the few chickens graves marked.
We always buy the cable ties in multi color packs. So we have a million green ties unused.
Green will now be used for another color code. An end of a legacy and a farewell to an era!
FC

 

[azygous]

The passing of our aging matriarchs is sad, even if expected. I have a nine-year old Brahma that lounges all day on a feed sack stuffed with straw. She gets up to eat and drink, but for most of the day, she's holding court from her "throne".

I used to have a chicken cemetery, but I had to abandon it when the bears dug up the remains. Sadly, that gave them a taste for my live chickens so it was a no-brainer to quit the practice of burying my pets.

 

[Folly's place]

I recently lost my oldest hen, a Belgian Booted Bantam, who was nine or ten years old. She was doing well until recently, and needed to be 'euthed' here. Fifteen is a very old age, good for your girl! Mary

 

[jeria]

AWWW so sorry Connie.

 

[barred2rock]

Sorry for your loss! You did an amazing job of keeping Green Girl all these years. I believe the Guinness World Record for oldest chicken is 16 years, so Green Girl was very close.

 

[aldarita]

Thank you very much for sharing your story with us, it is always touching to see how people love their animals, for many, chickens are livestock and for some others they are pets. My oldest hens are only 4 years old and now I am looking forward to having them in my flock for more years.

 

[NotSoChickenLove]

A friend of mine has a 9 year old hen. She hasn't laid in years but she takes all the youngsters and teaches them the way of the coop. No inter-poultry dramas when Big Mama is in charge of the yard.