Healthyhens can populate 12 year or more , although they typically pass their prime by the long time of 3 to 4 age . In the mean solar day when chickens were hold back primarily for eggs and meat , hens were seldom keep past their premier twelvemonth . Today , when many chicken become dear backyard pets , their keeper are often unprepared for the transformations that occur as a hen ages . Here are six changes to watch for in hens that live to a ripe onetime age .
1.Appearance & Activity
As a hen years , her leg and feet get thick and rougher . Some hens — most notably old - style magnanimous Old English games — rise spurs . The older the biddy gets , the longer the acantha are .
Old hens train stiff breastbones , equate to the more elastic sternum of pullet . Seniors also have firmer muscle and thicker , tougher skin , liken to the soft sinew and papery flimsy , fairly semitransparent skin of a pullet .
Older hens loosely feel more heavy and solid , unless they develop one of the weather condition that cause an age hen to lose weight . As a hen years , she will lean to be less active , moving less spryly than she once did , and she will often take the air a small stiffly . In a flock that include untried hens , old hen gradually turn a loss rank in the pecking order .
2.Fewer Eggs
The elder a hen is , the fewer bollock she lays and the less regularly she lays them . For a healthy hen , testicle production drops approximately 10 percent each year , compared to her first - year production rate .
For deterrent example , a hen that lays 180 egg in her first year can be expected to lie in :
A sound biddy that know to the age of 10 or 12 years should continue to lie at least a few egg . A biddy that hold on laying totally has some condition that interferes with lay — often the term is obesity . ( See “ Signs of Obesity”sidebar below . )
3.Bigger Eggs
Although an sure-enough hen lays fewer egg , the eggs are bombastic , the shell are thinner , and the albumen is fluid . If the hen lays egg with brown shield , the shells will be a paler wraith of brown . The usual explanation is that as a hen ’s egg get larger , the same amount of browned pigment has to cover a larger control surface area .
This account , however , does n’t account for why the pointy end of the orchis tends to be lighter in coloration than the rounded last .
4.Excessive Fat
As a backyard hen years , she can be given toward fleshiness , peculiarly if feed an wrong diet or too many treats .
Chickens evolved with the ability to educate an abdominal fat pad to use as substitute energy during times when pasturage is scarce . Most untested chickens , especially active free - chain of mountains birds , have a comparatively flimsy fatty pad . In general , an older chicken has a loggerheaded fatty tissue stamp pad than a younger chicken .
Old hens , specially inactive hen fed too much grain , can accumulate tremendous quantities of avoirdupois , to the gunpoint that the abdominal caries is most filled with avoirdupois .
Heavy breed hens that are characterize as beingcold hardyconserve blubber more readily than lighter Mediterranean breeds , and therefore more easily become obese . Besides interfering with laying , fleshiness can lead to substantial health issues .
5.Sex Change
Spontaneous sex modification is a phenomenon whereby a hen build up the characteristics of a cock . A biddy has two ovaries , but only the left one produces eggs , while the right one remains undeveloped .
If the left ovary becomes dormant , testicular tissue of the right ovary is induce into functional activity . This results in the biddy getting a dose of the male endocrine responsible for brag , enlargement of the comb and the development of male plumage .
Sometimes an aging biddy will crow during nonlaying periods , when male internal secretion wield greater influence than female hormones . Sex variety in an old biddy signal she is attain the remnant of her productive animation . Spontaneous sex change can occur originally in a hen ’s life if the flock lacks a rooster or the hen has an contagion , tumor or other disease .
6.Deferred Broodiness
Some breeds rarely become broody when they ’re unseasoned but may brood as they maturate . This deferred broodiness trait is peculiarly typical ofChanteclersand Fayoumis . Individual hens of other breed may have deferred broodiness , as may hen leave from a cross between a biddy of a breed that typically broods and a dick of a strain known for lack of broodiness .
Even though a hen ’s testis production declines over clock time , if she has a story of successfully brooding chicks ( whether deferred or not ) , she will still make a good mama hen despite her age .
Sidebar: Signs of Obesity
A hen may be cumulate an unhealthful amount of avoirdupois if :
This story in the first place appear in the November / December 2019 return ofChickensmagazine .
