In the countryside, only the lazy do not hold chickens. This especially productive poultry is now bred in summer cottages, and even in city apartments. True, the city dweller on how to determine the age of the chicken is more often concerned only with the choice of the carcass of a domestic chicken in the market. It all depends on the breed, but on average chickens live to ten, sometimes fifteen years. But laying hens of them are good only in the first three years of life.
At poultry farms, the highest egg production is important: an egg per day from one laying hen. Therefore, they 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 laying hen goes for meat, and the question of how to determine the age of the chicken does not arise. But at his compound there are not such strict requirements for egg laying. Moreover, when kept at home in the second year of life, laying hens can give eggs a little less, but they are larger. It is better for novice housewives to learn more about how to determine the age of laying hens. The photo below shows brown hens. According to reviews, they have good egg production.
Bears Eggs - Young
The first question when rejecting chickens in his yard is: does she carry eggs and how much? It must be remembered that, regardless of the breed, the hens of the spring brood begin to rush to the fifth month of life. So, to complete the bird family for the winter to get eggs from a large brood, you need to start at the end of summer. Without a rooster, laying eggs perfectly carry diet eggs. If you have plans to further grow your chickens, then about ten young chickens need only one rooster. If your house has several generations of birds, then select, as experienced people say, with good sense.
The "slimmer" - the younger
How to determine the age of young chicken? We start with weight. By the time of maturation of hens of egg breeds, their mass should be about one and a half kilograms. Roosters are a bit 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 in hens and almost four in males.
The faster - the younger.
Young healthy laying hens are active and nimble birds. They are the first in the morning to run out of the chicken coop to the feeder. They like to walk outside, and in the evening they need to be driven into the house. They all day, even in the heat of the day, tirelessly seek food for themselves. All the time they are rowing something, looking for any small living creatures: worms, bugs. If the chicken is in the chicken coop during the day, this is not a sign of her youth, which means egg production. On the contrary, sluggish and obese chickens can be safely discarded for meat.
The brighter - the younger
A common question: is it possible, and if so, how to determine the age of the chicken by the scallop? By the beginning of oviposition in a young laying hen, the comb and catkins are well developed and have a bright red color. The scallop is swollen and warm. And in a bird that has laid eggs for more than three years, the scallop is fallen, cool to the touch and dull. You can not argue with nature. Healthy and young can always be recognized by bright colors. Correctly grown young animals have a yellow, almost orange hue of the eyes, beak and legs. In good laying hens, this pigmentation is gradually reduced. At first, the beak loses its bright orange color. The last in young women after four months of oviposition the paws brighten. But in a young healthy chicken, the eyes are always convex and transparent, and the scales on the legs are smooth and evenly shiny, without damage. After molting, pigmentation is restored, and it is easier to answer the question of how to determine the age of the chicken.
Plumage
The plumage speaks well of the age of the bird. Knowing the physiological characteristics of its shift or annual molt, it is possible to answer with great accuracy the question of how to determine the age of the chicken. In young chicken, the feather covering the body is clean, smooth, dense and shiny. Under them there is always fluff for thermal insulation. When considering the wings, two orders of fly feathers are clearly visible. On the edge - ten longest, most durable, with a wide fan. After the dividing axillary wing there are fifteen second-order flyworms. On the tail there is a transverse row of tail feathers, and around the tailbone there are feathers, which are called brush feathers. In chickens of egg breeds, the feather is updated to sixty days of age. Meat by the ninetieth day is covered with a feather of an adult bird.
The course of molting can be traced to the change of the feathering on the wings. It begins with a separation pen. It falls one by one, and a new one grows in its place. A complete replacement of the primary feathers on the wings ends by six months of the bird. In males, primary molting begins and ends later than in hens. In addition, in young women, it is associated with puberty and the onset of egg laying. After a year, they stop laying eggs, begin to drop feathers and restore pigmentation. Highly productive laying hens. They begin to lay eggs until the end of a full molt. They change their pen late in the fall, it passes quickly, and they look very shabby at the same time, which misleads the owners when rejecting.