Normally, since I have 15 chickens, I feed them 700 grams of food early in the morning. Over the day, they lay eggs.
Then about 4 hours before sun sets, I let them out of fence so they forage for insects and grass.
However, I wondered what to do once chickens stop laying eggs. Obviously, it wont happen now, but it will happen eventually.
I cant slaughter chickens. These chickens place a lot of hope in me. They follow me around and get excited when they see me.
So I figured, once they stop laying eggs, I simply need to change the feeding system.
Instead of letting them out 4 hours before sun set, I will let them out early in the morning, so they can forage all day, then 4 hours before sun set, I put them back in fence and release the chickens who are laying eggs to forage.
Usually, chickens that lay eggs are released to forage 4 hours before sun set. This is to make sure they lay eggs in coop during the day, and by the end of day, once they have layed all the eggs for the day, they are released to forage. This prevents them from laying eggs all over the land.
But if chickens get old and stop laying eggs, this rule no longer applies. Thus, they can be let to forage all day. In this way, they will require very little food from me and thus wont be an expense, so I can keep them until they naturally die and I am not economically forced to slaughter them.
The other option would be to release them in nature, but I am certain they would die quickly in nature.
