"wafflycat" wrote in message
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"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in message
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Yeah, that bit of information was a real surprise to me, having been a
city girl all my life, so never having had close acquaintance with
domestic fowl! (Is that true of ALL birds, or just chickens?)

You only have to have a cockerel involved if you want *fertilised* eggs.
Many birds produce unfertilised eggs. And we ladies still produce eggs
without having to have a male involved ;-)
It's a common misconception that a cockerel is needed for hens to produce
eggs - and also that hens keep laying eggs all day, loads of them ;-)
One egg a day is the best you can hope for. They have a 23-25 hour laying
cycle as a young hen, which reduces with age. That's why they go out of the
battery farms after a year and a half into chicken pies.
My first hens were pullets that were about to go into cages. They laid like
stink for two years then started to die of egg peritonitis. They are not
designed to live for years. I got a couple of them up to 7 but it was rare.
I got fed up with that so I went into pure breeds, which lay less, but live
much longer. They almost always live until 7-12 yo