How long does a chicken live? This is often one of the first questions that those approaching the world of poultry farming may ask themselves.
Well, the longevity of a chicken is due to many factors. Breed, weight, nutrition, diseases, and husbandry: all factors that heavily influence how long a chicken lives. For example, Mediterranean breeds and bantam breeds often live longer, staying more active and fit compared to heavy breeds.
In general, however, the average life expectancy of a pasture-raised chicken can vary from 8 to 12 years. There are, of course, interesting exceptions: for years, for example, the longest-lived chicken was reportedly Matilda, an Old English Game Bantam female, who died in 2006 at the age of 16. But her record was reportedly broken by Peanut, an American hen who died at the venerable age of 21.
And Peanut is not an isolated case: although the fact was never made official, a Polverara hen belonging to the Paduan breeder Bruno Rossetto was exhibited at a poultry show in 1988, when she was about one year old, and died of old age only in 2009, at the age of over 21 years!
In general, however, chickens tend to live much less. In particular, animals raised in intensive production circuits are destined to see their life cycle end in a very short period of time, ranging from 37 days for a broiler chicken to 3 years for a laying hen. For this very reason, amateur breeding becomes very important, where chickens can not only live in better conditions that respect their physiological and ethological needs, but also longer. And since we know well how long a chicken lives, we at Novital are committed to creating quality items designed to last over time, to always guarantee that you can best care for the needs of your animals.
But besides knowing how long a chicken lives, it is also useful to know how long it remains productive and for how long it will be a good breeder (or sire, in the case of a rooster).
We can say, therefore, that a hen starts laying eggs on average between 4 and 8 months, depending on the breed, and that she reaches the peak of egg production in the following year. Commercial crosses, the classic laying hens, can lay over 300-320 eggs within the first year of life. In most poultry breeds, this quantity drops to 180-200 eggs in the first year. In subsequent years, hens will lay fewer and fewer eggs, and after 3 years of age, egg production will likely be very low. Some hens after 10 years lay as few as 6 or 7 eggs per year! How long a chicken lives therefore becomes an important question especially for another purpose, that of selecting good breeders for your own farm.
In fact, hens will probably continue to lay—a little—for many years, sometimes until an advanced age, but eggs laid in the years following the first will be larger than those laid in the first year. This fact can significantly influence the choice of animals intended for reproduction in a flock, but we will talk about this in a separate article dedicated to the age breeders should be in a poultry farm. See you soon!
