Exact Answer: 5 To 7 Years
Among hundreds of living organisms on planet Earth, some are more popularly known while some are not known as much. The reason some are known and some are not, is because many are extinct due to natural causes and others, while some are still thriving in the world.
There is the other reason why these organisms are known worldwide is that they are fed, grown, and taken care of because, in the end, they are of some use to mankind. Nowadays, almost everything a human uses is obtained from either nature or the animals and the birds.
Food, clothing, and accessories are made out of products obtained from birds and animals, and one bird that provides humans with many products is the chickens and the hens, the types of birds that have been around since the beginning of time.
How Long Do Hens Lay Eggs?
| All about hens laying eggs | Time |
| At the peak of production, on average, hens lay eggs every | 25 hours |
| The minimum duration hens lay eggs in their lifetime | 5 years |
| The maximum duration hens lay eggs in their lifetime | 6 to 7 years |
Chickens and hens are either grown in farmlands or farms by farmers or sometimes they are bred in factories and warehouses to collect the products. Chickens are bred in large numbers for their meat and eggs. Hens and chickens are types of fowls, and though they look almost the same and serve the same purpose, there is a lot of difference between them.
According to zoologists, hens are the female version of chicken and chickens lay eggs for almost 5 to 7 years, until they are 17 to 20 years old. The lifespan of chickens and hens depends on various reasons.
When they are at their peak, hens can lay eggs every 25 hours, which is miraculous, and hens, just like chickens, lay eggs for a minimum of 5 years. The maximum duration hens lay eggs in their lifetime is about 6 to 7 years in total, but some hens lay longer than that.
In summary, hens are just mature female chickens, about a year old, and the name of the chickens depends upon their gender, level of maturity, and course age.
Why Do Hens Lay Eggs For That Long?
Young male chickens are called cockerels and female ones are called pullets, and hens start laying eggs about 6 to 8 weeks after they are born.
There are ways to determine the sex of the chicken, for example, the length of the feathers can determine can even determine the sex. There are purebred and also hybrids chickens. Almost everything about a chicken and a hen is the same, like their weight, height, lifespan, trainability, and much more. They are easily trainable and both of them are domestic birds that can be bred on farms.
When a hen is about to lay eggs, it becomes broody, because its maternal instincts begin, and it starts becoming protective of itself and its eggs. The hens become aggressive and when a hen doesn’t start laying eggs, it becomes ill and there are ways to help the hens overcome their broodiness.
After laying the eggs, the hens start incubating them and so some of them lay eggs on the floor instead of inside a cage. Eggs laid by hens can be eaten or can be incubated and new chickens can be bred.
Conclusion
According to the census, well-fed hens can lay up to 250 eggs per year, and some hens even lay one egg per day. How many eggs a hen lays every year depends on various factors like the housing of the hens, management of the hens, the way they have bred the weather in which they are bred, and especially the number of nutrients they get.
Normally, the production of eggs slows down during the fall and winter seasons because the hens require about 15 to 16 hours of sunlight per day.
In the first year, the hens lay about 250 eggs, but the count decreases after a while because, during the second year, the hens only lay about 80% of the eggs they laid the first year. Once the birds start aging, the size of eggs starts becoming even. After the third year, the production of eggs reduces to 70%.
