20 eggs from 12 hens----Easter Miracle!

[Blasingame]

Have 12 Red Star hens & one rooster.... They have been laying about 4 months now......After the first egg and about a week have only been about three days that we have not had 12 eggs each day.......those three days we collected 11 eggs........
About a month ago we collected 16 eggs in one day!.....about 2 weeks ago collected 14 eggs in one day........today we collected 20 eggs in one day from the 12 hens.....
No I did not forget to collect the eggs----Even cleaned the nest boxes yesterday and put new nesting material in the boxes....
Tell me about this "Easter Miracle"!
First chickens that we have ever owned...Hens perch on lawn chair arms when we sit in them or worse yet they try to perch in your lap when trying to relax from yard work.....
Feed 22% protein pellets......and all the bugs that they can find.....allow them to graze for 1 to 3 hours every evening before sunset...We do get a few double and triple yolked eggs.
PLEASE, can someone help with this Mystery!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sex links hens do lay like crazy their first year. I would assume some are laying early than late in the day. This time of years hens are prone to releasing multiple yolks at a time, yours seem to be really going at it. It's good you are feeding the extra protein as they do require that to keep up production. Unfortunately many sex links burn out quickly and are done laying by two years.

 

[aart]

I'd bet it's a combo of the high protein feed, high production birds, and spring hormone surge.
Do you feed anything else, like some scratch grains or veggie scraps?

 

[Spartan22]

I agree with everyone that chimed in, the first few months of my Rhode Islands laying I've gotten multiple extras. But does your neighborhood have other chickens maybe depositing eggs in your nesting boxes? Just a thought

 

[Blasingame]

Thanks for the comments and help. Just having a lot of fun with chickens. LB

 

[Blasingame]

Most people here have 2 to 5 acres here, but no chickens for miles around......

 

[Blasingame]

You know we do have a large bird feeder that I go out to each day and tap out a little bird seed.....it has a lot of corn and black sunflower seeds in it for Cardinals!

 

[Blasingame]

Oh, Yeah! these are from Murray McMurray way up north, but they love cornbread. (they are southern at heart)!......Usually for a treat I cook approx. a pan a week for them. They were up in my lap and perched on my shoulders this afternoon eating cornbread out of my hand!