Well, I knew the day was coming. We'd talked about it when we bought the last bag of lay mash and agreed that it would truly be the last bag. The countdown had begun. 2 years and 4 months ago, on the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend, twelve little puffs of fluff joined our household. 
They were a sweet bunch of chicks who turned into a lovely flock of Rhode Island Red laying hens. And over the past almost two years, they have faithfully laid their eggs and eaten every snail and slug they could find. We have had many flocks of chickens over the years, but this group seemed especially calm. Of course, Miss P was their guardian kitty...laying out among them while they had their regular evenings out in back yard. Our neighbors enjoyed the clucking and we all laughed at their sometimes lengthy monologues of "Look at me, I laid an egg!" And they did lay eggs--lots of eggs. Just think on days that we had "complete compliance" we added a dozen eggs to our cache! Good thing we had friends who were glad to buy our extras...
Our grandchildren enjoyed them...and they let themselves be carried around. 
The girls collected feathers and gathered eggs. I chatted with "my ladies" whenever I was in the back yard. When we offered our extra eggs for sale, we advertized them as eggs from happy chickens. Someone once asked me how I knew they were happy. I told him they were cage free, fed, watered, allowed free roaming time and provided with a nice 4 unit nesting box with hay and an enclosed, safe place to roost at night...and above all they they were loved. Yep, I freely admit it. I love my chickens.(Cherith, who enjoys repeating back to me what I have said to her on many occasions would say, "Grandma, love people, like things." But I think even Cherith would allow this exception...my chickens may not be people, but they are more than things!)
But they are still just chickens. And since their second moult, we're down to 2-4 eggs a day, which means they cost more than buying eggs, which means, it's the end of their laying life at Franklin Family Farms. So, what's next? Well, with past flocks, we have butchered them. Not a pleasant process, but not overly disgusting. We've learned a few tricks to make it go easier. Of course 2+ year old hens are who they are talking about when you read about "tough old birds." So we're talking about stewing chickens...soup pot possibilities. In the past we had more mouths to feed and less income to do it with and took advantage of the opportunity of meat in the freezer, but we've gotten older and less enthusiastic about butchering...at least at this moment. We have also "released" a flock on a friend's 40 acre farm and let them end their days fending for themselves, recognizing that they would probably join the "great food chain" of life somewhere at about the coyote level (which sounds a little cruel, I know, but remember, they are just chickens...and they are also responsible for the phrase "bird brain, " which, in case you don't know, means very small. : )
As the agreed upon last bag of lay mash has gone down, we've pondered the quandary. If we knew someone who would like to have them for butchering, we would gladly pass them on. Our friend's farm no longer has other animals, so it would be pretty much a direct chute to the food chain. Then Thursday, I had a technological idea solution--something we've never had available with past flocks. Something that allows for broader possibilities than we might conceive. That something was Craigslist, Modesto! So looking at the level of feed left in the barrel compelled me to fire up the computer and place the following ad in the "Free Stuff" section: "Eleven hens, 2 1/2 years old and ready for the stew pot. Getting only 2-4 eggs/day so are ready to get rid of them and don't want to butcher for ourselves. Because they are older hens, they would be stewing chickens, not fryers. Or if someone has acreage and wants to just let them roam and eventually feed the coyotes. : )" We got two responses in the first hour and 5 more by early afternoon when I deleted the ad. 4 hens went to a young family with lots of caterpillars and bugs who would like to try a few hens on insect patrol. They spent the couple of hours before they picked the hens up converting a large dog house into a place for them to roost at night. The other 7 went to Daniel, a young man from the other side of the county who lives on a large farm and has several different kinds of chickens and just likes them in general. He was glad to add to his flock. He has roosters as well and often has little flocks of newborns. Eventually they will probably join the food chain, but they will have a nice semi-secure old age until they do. So I gathered the last of the eggs today...8! Actually some are from yesterday, but they were pretty and various shades of brown. Some were oddly shaped, as happens with older hens. One had cute little dark red/brown freckles. A couple were very light, more a tan than a brown. One was very pointy.
They're gone. I will miss my ladies...their eggs, too, but really I will simply miss their presence in our life. The beginning of November...that's when we'll see about a new batch of chicks. 
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