[riffraff]

is there a culture of "old hen soup" where you live?

In Italy there's a folk saying, "gallina vecchia fa buon brodo" ("and old hen makes for good soup", meaning there's value in old people/stuff), and in Hungary it's relatively easy to buy a literal old hen at farmers' markets, which makes for much better soup than meat-oriented chicken.

[aww_dang]

They generally prefer the older rooster, non-broiler, heirloom varieties for soup here. You can easily find these in any village, but if you buy them downtown you'll pay about 3x. If you like the countryside it is worth the trip. You can buy other produce while you're there.

Old laying hens are usually cheaper. Not as desirable.