How to determine the age of a chicken: possible ways

In rural areas, only lazy people do not keep chickens. This especially productive poultry is now bred both in the suburban areas, and even in urban apartments. However, the city dweller question about how to determine the age of a hen, often worried only when choosing a carcass of a domestic chicken in the bazaar. Everything depends on the breed, but on average chickens live to ten, sometimes fifteen years. But layers of them are good only in the first three years of life.

On poultry farms the highest egg production is important: an egg a day from a single hen. Therefore, contain chickens for eggs only up to a year. Further productivity is reduced by almost fifteen percent per year, and for industrial maintenance it is unprofitable. A year-old hen goes to meat, and the question of how to determine the age of a hen does not arise. And here on the farmstead not such rigid requirements to яйценоскости. Moreover, at home maintenance in the second year of life, laying hens can give eggs a little less, but they are larger. For beginners it is better to learn more in detail how to determine the age of a laying hen. The photo below shows chickens of the Brown breed. According to reviews, they have good egg production.

Carries eggs - young

The first question when rejecting chickens in their yard is: does it carry eggs and how many? It must be remembered that, regardless of the breed, the chickens of spring brood begin to sweep for the fifth month of life. Hence, to complete the bird family for the winter to get eggs from a large brood begin in the end of summer. Without a rooster hens are perfectly carrying diet eggs. If you have plans to further grow your chickens, then approximately one in ten young chickens is enough for one cock. If there are several generations of birds in your poultry house, then, as the experienced people say, select well.

The more "slimmer" - the younger

How to determine the age of a chicken? We begin with weight. By the time of maturation of hens of egg rocks, their mass should be about one and a half kilograms. Roosters are slightly heavier - up to two kilos. Representatives of meat varieties ripen a month later, and their live weight is more than two and a half kilograms for chickens and almost four for males.

The faster - the younger

Young healthy layers - birds are active and nimble. They the first morning run out of the chicken coop to the feeder. They like to walk on the street, and in the evening they need to be driven into the house. They spend the whole day, even in the heat, tirelessly looking for their food. All the time, they row something, looking for every small living creature: worms, beetles. If the hen in the daytime in the hen-house is not a sign of her youth, which means egg-laying. On the contrary, sluggish and obese chickens boldly cull for meat.

The brighter - the younger

The frequent question is: is it possible, and if so, how to determine the age of a chicken on a scallop? At the beginning of laying in the young laying hen, the comb and earrings are well developed and have a bright red color. The scallop is swollen and warm. And in a bird carrying eggs for more than three years, the scallop is fallen, cool to the touch and dull. With nature you can not argue. Healthy and young can always be recognized by a bright color. A properly grown youngster has a coat of eyes, beak and legs from yellow to almost orange hues. In good layers, this pigmentation gradually decreases. First the beak loses its bright orange color. The last in the young man after four months of laying light paws. But in a young healthy hen, the eyes are always convex and transparent, and the flakes on the legs are smooth and uniformly shiny, without damage. After moulting pigmentation is restored, and it is easier to answer the question of how to determine the age of a hen.

Plumage

The age of the bird is well told by its plumage. Knowing the physiological characteristics of his shift or annual moult, it is possible to answer with great accuracy the question of how to determine the age of a chicken. In a young hen, the body that covers the body is clean, smooth, dense and shiny. Under them, there must be fluff for thermal insulation. When examining the wings, two orders of fly feathers are clearly visible. On the edge - ten long, the most durable, with a wide fan. After the divisional axillary wing, there are fifteen second-order flywheels. On the tail there is a transverse row of steering feathers, and around the tailbone are feathers, which are called tassels. In chickens of egg breeds, the feather is renewed until the sixty-day age. Meat for the ninety day is covered with a feather of an adult bird.

The course of molting can be traced by changing the flight plumage on the wings. It begins with a separating pen. One-by-one drops out one at a time, and a new one grows in its place. The complete replacement of the primary feathers on the wings ends by the half-year of the bird. In males, primary molting begins and ends later than in chickens. In addition, in young it is associated with the timing of puberty and the beginning of laying eggs. After a year they stop laying eggs, begin to drop their feathers and restore pigmentation. Highly productive laying hens are ripe. They begin to lay eggs until the end of a full molt. The change of the pen comes in late autumn, passes quickly, and they look much shabby at this, than they mislead the owners when they are rejected.