Christina Websell wrote:
Well, you can use them for the table but there will be nothing much in the
way of meat on them. Chickens that are bred for eggs and those who are bred
for meat are totally different these days.

I have to say, our speckledy is fattening up incredibly in the past week or
two!

And it looks like I spoke too soon about the mites, found a few the past day
or two. Although nothing like they were, and the little chickens are
looking a bit healthier (not so anaemic), and one has started to lay quite
surprisingly large eggs! (And one looks very white, so we think she
probably went through a moult)

Your old hens, if you get fed up with them not laying as much as you want,
can be used to make nice stock for soup.

Aww. What a waste of a friendly little bok-bok. :-(

Myself, I just let them "geriatric around" when they get old, giving me the
occasional egg, but I have room for that without it making a difference
about getting some young ones.

I think the 6 we currently have is our capacity, when we had 7 it had a bit
of a cramped feel. As it is, I did open up the roost box one night to check
they were all ok and found speckledy sat on the back of the nera! (who
didn't seem at all perturbed, amusingly)