Topic of the Week - How long do chickens live?

[Shadrach]

My eldest so far reached 12 years old.
Next eldest 11 years old.
8 and 9 year olds fairly common for keepers I've known.
My sisters eldest 14.

In this book by a very experienced and respected vet and poultry enthusiast the average life span for bantams was 12 years old and for dual purpose breeds, 10 years old. These ages are compiled from British statistics.

Something is going horribly wrong when chickens are commonly dying at 5 and 6 years old.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Let's keep this post alive! My aunt has eight hens eight year old that are fed layer pellets that still lay! They're in an enclosure with an old shed. They get weeds, kitchen scraps and anything else that falls off the kitchen counter.

 

[BDutch]

My oldest Dutch bantam is 8+ now. 2 Dutch are 7½ . I had more and sold/gave a few away. The ones that died were lost by predation. Not by sickness.

Another bantam breed I had was less succesfull ( 2 Naine de Tournaisis hens) . They died approx. 4 years old.

 

[Ponypoor]

My oldest is Penelope, she is 6 years young, still lays an egg every week, she is more or less a mutt, but would say a lot of Americana, as she does lay blue eggs.

There are also 2 that are coming 3 yrs old, and the rest are under 2, which includes a Polish Roo.

Penelope

 

[micheleomal]

My oldest is 9.5 yrs. She is an olive egger and the last survivor from my original flock. This fall I got 9 chicks and for the first time she has gone broody with these chicks, hanging around Outside their enclosure and making the broody sounds at them. I got a few eggs from her this spring.

 

[gillyfleur]

View attachment 2975589

Many of us have or had the odd chicken that seems to have been around forever, year after year, laying the odd egg still, if a hen, slowly fading as time goes by… If not killed by predators, disease, mishaps, culling, or processed for the table, chickens can live a fairly long life. I'm curious to hear what age your oldest flock members reached and...

- What is the average lifespan of a chicken?
- When is a bird too old to live a quality life?
- What can you do to make sure your oldest flock members are happy and comfortable?

For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

I proudly present: Fuzzy Slippers! My son bought her when he was in second grade, she was purchased with a couple other bantam chicks form the local feed store when they were 3 days old (we still have the receipt). She just kept going, kept laying eggs, kept ferociously protecting her best friend; a large breed mixed hen that was crippled. We were still showing her as she aged and her last show was when she was nine! She won BoB and laid a couple eggs just to show off. After her friend died she started slowing down and had a couple bad bouts of coryza so we moved her indoors to be our "house chicken". She loved our cats and dogs and would play with them and just hang out as shown in the picture. She lived long enough to go through chicken "menopause" and started to crow regularly. She also lived long enough to develop cataracts as her eyes aged. She continued to lay eggs until she was 13. At eighteen she was still healthy and would cluck and cackle to us as we worked in the house. About 2 months after her nineteenth birthday, she started to have trouble roosting on the edge of her bin she lived in and would just sleep on the floor of the bin. A few weeks later she started breathing heavily when she would exert herself flapping her wings. Then one morning she didn't want to leave her bin and the next morning we found her dead. She has been gone for 5 years now and we miss her every day. Who knew a feed store chick bought for $2.36 would be a part of our family for so many years?

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

It is great to hear of hens living so long. However, does anyone know what the average is? My first flock is just about 4 1/2 years old. I have about 63% (7 out of 11 hens) left from that flock. How do I know if that is good? Maybe I need to change something to get a better survival percentage going forward. I got them from the feed store and since then have gotten some through the mail from Hoover's Hatchery. I want to make sure they get the best life I can offer. I hate to think that I am doing something to cause them an early death.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

here is my 2. oldest hen, looking terrible right now cos she’s molting heavily ( also maybe a sign of age) she was born in Aug. 2013 and laid eggs this year

She is a cross between my oldest chicken and a german Langschan rooster
here is a picture of her this September

 

[MotherofOrpies]

here is my oldest chicken from Feb 2012, she was one of my first chickens, and also laid eggs this year, she started growing spurs like a rooster about 4 years ago, she is a cross between Augsburger chicken and Bresse

 

[Ponypoor]

I proudly present: Fuzzy Slippers! My son bought her when he was in second grade, she was purchased with a couple other bantam chicks form the local feed store when they were 3 days old (we still have the receipt). She just kept going, kept laying eggs, kept ferociously protecting her best friend; a large breed mixed hen that was crippled. We were still showing her as she aged and her last show was when she was nine! She won BoB and laid a couple eggs just to show off. After her friend died she started slowing down and had a couple bad bouts of coryza so we moved her indoors to be our "house chicken". She loved our cats and dogs and would play with them and just hang out as shown in the picture. She lived long enough to go through chicken "menopause" and started to crow regularly. She also lived long enough to develop cataracts as her eyes aged. She continued to lay eggs until she was 13. At eighteen she was still healthy and would cluck and cackle to us as we worked in the house. About 2 months after her nineteenth birthday, she started to have trouble roosting on the edge of her bin she lived in and would just sleep on the floor of the bin. A few weeks later she started breathing heavily when she would exert herself flapping her wings. Then one morning she didn't want to leave her bin and the next morning we found her dead. She has been gone for 5 years now and we miss her every day. Who knew a feed store chick bought for $2.36 would be a part of our family for so many years?

Awwwww such a lovely story thanks for sharing!