Anything that is buggy and the layers will eat is taken up to their pen. On Friday they got the old buggy broccoli.
In the last week they have started to molt. They are over 18 months old now and it is time for the first molt.
Good layers will molt at 18 months. Poorer layers will molt earlier. One of the reasons we don’t keep older hens is they stop laying when they molt. Their bodies can either send the protein into feathers (at about 95%) or into eggs, but not both.
When they have finished molting, they will only lay at around 60% of whatever they laid previously. We found, with feeding organic feed and the expense, it was not cost effective to keep older hens.
These hens are lucky in that they have all found second homes. Usually our older hens become ground chicken. There are 17 hens of which 2 are broody. Six others must have been laying inside as I only had 9 in the photo.
They are scheduled to move to their new homes on October 1.