When Urban Chickens Stop Producing Eggs

The Department of Agriculture noted in a recent report that nearly 1% of households in four cities it surveyed in 2010 — Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City — owned chickens. Yet a hen may lay eggs at a rate of a few hundred a year for only two to three years before production slows. What do America’s urban farmers do with these clucks when their laying days are done?

So the thing that happens to chickens living in cities with their urban owners after they stop laying eggs is that their owners often feel too attached to their chickens so they don’t, you know, *makes throat-cutting gesture*. Instead, they abandon their chickens and give them to shelters, or those who keep them and let them age often watch their chickens suffer from diseases or attacks from neighborhood pets. Also, the savings that come from home egg-production are dubious.

Photo: SMcGarnicle

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