Diva expend her day slug in the sun , take dust bath and waiting for rich bugs to wind toward her so she can run through them with little endeavour . Dolly passes her time lead a scout troop of hen and pullets around the grazing land , foraging for seeds and other autumn dainty . Alex just watches everything from her favourite perch , hopping down every now and then to get water and solid food , then point back out to roost .
Three unlike hens carry on in three unlike but all distinctive fashion . The only matter out of the ordinary is the age of our little girl : They are all past eight years of years . According to the Ohio State University file name extension office , seven to eight years is theaverage living twain of a chicken . This means our girls have reached their maximum years and surpassed it . Alex , Dolly and Diva are apparently unmindful to this , but we ’re not . As our flock ages , we have taken several stone’s throw to assure that our old raspberry can live the lives they are customary to savor . If some of your bird are reaching an elderly age , consider following these five suggestions .
1. Change Their Feed to Crumbles
Many poultry farmers feed their flocks layer rations in shot sort , which might become progressively difficult to endure as GI systems become sluggish with age . facilitate your aging chickens continue to enjoy their edibles by switch to crumbles . The littler , more easily digest crumble call for less endeavour to cave in down because of size of it . For age bantam birds , the crumble is also easier to swallow .
2. Continue the Calcium Supplement
Your age volaille might no longer be laying eggs — or might produce only one egg per week — but you should still give them a calcium supplement . Loss of off-white density can affect your flock as your snort grow older . The more frail the bone , the more susceptible to breakage it becomes , and an get on bird does not bounce back from an injury as swiftly as when it was young . A hopper full of huitre plate is hunky-dory for a young flock . An older radical benefit more from a calcium accessory that is more pulverized . Do n’t use a pulverized one — this could accidentally get inhaled and stimulate an aging bird respiratory issues . Instead , take a moment to further crush your jam huitre shell into fine , more doable snatch .
3. Lower Their Roosts
The old they get , the hard it becomes for age chicken to skip over up to the height they used to well reach when they were younger . Jumping down to the coop story from a high perch likewise becomes more difficult for older birds , peculiarly larger standards such asCochins , BrahmasandOrpingtons , whose great organic structure mass make landing place especially jarring on senior leg joints . To diminish the possibility of injury ( and to decrease the chance of older birds simply sleeping in the nest boxes ) , lower your flock ’s perch by about a foot . Observe your hoot to see whether you need to further adjust the height to make it easier for your muckle to perch .
4. Examine the Run
If your flock spend their day in a campaign , study the ground for perils that might mail an old bird tumbling . origin , rocks and gravid sticks are tripping hazards that could make harm . Remove these from the sphere . Look for holes in the ground , including depressions created by dustbathing chicken . fulfill these with guts or topsoil to ply your age little girl with an even ground to roam on .
5. Keep Older Birds With Young Ones
old hen have long had a report for being the queen of the roost , the sage , experienced birds that instruct the new ones about being a hen . That is certainly dead on target for Dolly , who takes her young company around the yard every day , showing them where the best treats are , where to take shelter should it rain and where to find the best spots for sunbathing .
Some one-time hen are a footling less hand - on ( wing - on ? ) about their guidance . Diva was always the first to put down every sunup . Where she pose is exactly where all the other hen in the coop chose to lay . Diva does n’t place any more , but the hens still lay in her favorite nestbox . Elder hen even help keep untested cockerels in railway line . When we introduce Thomas Orpington to Diva ’s and Alex ’s coop , that poor son was henpecked for day until he realise that the senior hen would always be senior to his Alpha rooster status .
Do n’t isolate your aging shuttlecock from their flock out of concern that the immature phallus might harm them . There might be some pecking - order change if the aging bird is a cock , but , for the most part , the young give the erstwhile one a new design once their laying days are done .
