Meat bird breeds

[silky smooth]

we are all here in support of you jen. many people get into this without really thinking it through, and then fail. for lack of funds. i would rather disillusion people in the beginning before lots of little heartbeats get involved. stick with it. I would love to follow your story. so keep us updated.

 

[silky smooth]

Doesn't compute. That comes out to 2 eggs every day - per hen.

tisk tisk. you assume that chickens lay on a set 24 hour schedule. My girls lay every 14 - 16 hours staggered. with a few thrown in at 12 hours.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Aberrations can occur. I've heard of a chicken that laid 2 eggs in a day but not every day.
That would require ovulation to take place shortly after the egg enters the shell gland. Normally ovulation isn't until at least 30 minutes after the egg is laid. In high yield hens, normally one yolk is produced on every 24 hour light/dark cycle.
The mechanisms of the initiation of ovulation and oviposition in fowl are well understood.
Science is aware of and has been working to improve upon the physiological block which sets the maximum of one ovulation per 24 hour light-dark period. That limits egg production to a maximum of one a day. This very thing has been studied ad nauseum since at least the 1940s with exhaustive research to try to shorten that, thereby increasing annual egg output.

Imagine what the egg industry would be willing to pay to obtain those genetics if there actually were birds that laid 2 a day. That discovery would be worth millions to the university that produces it and billions to the egg industry.

Upon ovulation, the yolk spends 15 minutes in the infundibulum where it is fertilized if sperm is present.
It then spends 3 hours in the magnum where the inner and outer membrane are added.
Moving on to the isthmus it takes an hour to add the albumen.
Then it goes into the uterus or shell gland where more water is added to the albumen and then the shell is formed and any pigments added. It takes about 21 hours for that process.
So that adds up to over 25 hours. There's no way to speed it up.
It is conceivable that another ovum could be released prior to the egg passing the cloaca but very unlikely. That could possibly be forced briefly with an ahemeral lighting program.
99% of all hens have only one functioning ovary. Perhaps all your hens have 2 ovaries.
Perhaps there are other hens from a neighbor volunteering eggs.
Either that or every avian scientist is wrong.

http://www.poultryscience.org/docs/pba/1952-2003/1985/1985 Biellier.pdf

http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/nielsen/www245/lecnotes/avianrepro.html

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1628&context=usdaarsfacpub

http://www.nutrecocanada.com/docs/s...-formation-and-eggshell-quality-in-layers.pdf

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/2/formation-of-the-egg

 

[silky smooth]

The mechanisms of the initiation of ovulation and oviposition in fowl are well understood.


Imagine what the egg industry would be willing to pay to obtain those genetics if there actually were birds that laid 2 a day. That discovery would be worth millions to the university that produces it and billions to the egg industry.


99% of all hens have only one functioning ovary. Perhaps all your hens have 2 ovaries.
Perhaps there are other hens from a neighbor volunteering eggs.
Either that or every avian scientist is wrong.

first, apparently not. because I am here to tell you different. in this case, on my farm.

secondly, I don't give a squat what they would pay. let them keep their money. they are not going to pick apart the life of my girls. perhaps it is the stress of their "research" that prohibits the results they seek?
let a chicken be a chicken. feed them well. love them well. throw in a little girl that spoils them. voila. more eggs.

no neighbor hens to help. my hens my eggs.

i am hearing what you are not saying. i do not appreciate it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I didn't post to upset you and I'm sorry if I did.
I posted to help those new chicken owners that read erroneous information about chickens laying 2 eggs a day and wonder why theirs don't

I know you don't give a squat but if your birds lay 2 eggs a day, I'll give you $1000 each and not to pick apart their life. I want to breed them in a pristine setting on organic pasture to make my million.

I've had over 30 breeds over 60 years that included 10s of thousands of birds. They have free ranged on organic pasture and fed organic feed, never stressed, letting chickens be chickens. I've never had a bird that laid more than an egg a day.

With 15 Billion egg layers in the world that don't lay more than an egg a day, it's strange that all 6 of yours do.

Peace, out!

 

[ilovethisday]

Will you please share how you raise your own meat birds? I have been wanting to do this, but am not quite certain how to go about it. I'm pretty new to this still and right now I have a variety of laying hens: RIR, Amaricaunas, Barred Rock and Buff Orphingtons. I would like to raise more of a meat bird and keep a cycle of meat birds and laying birds going to end our dependency as well, but need some guidance. I have a good sized duplex chicken house right now if that will help me accomplish my goal? thank you

 

[varidgerunner]

I didn't post to upset you and I'm sorry if I did.
I posted to help those new chicken owners that read erroneous information about chickens laying 2 eggs a day and wonder why theirs don't

I know you don't give a squat but if your birds lay 2 eggs a day, I'll give you $1000 each and not to pick apart their life. I want to breed them in a pristine setting on organic pasture to make my million.

I've had over 30 breeds over 60 years that included 10s of thousands of birds. They have free ranged on organic pasture and fed organic feed, never stressed, letting chickens be chickens. I've never had a bird that laid more than an egg a day.

With 15 Billion egg layers in the world that don't lay more than an egg a day, it's strange that all 6 of yours do.

Peace, out!

You haven't had the right breeds, if you haven't seen two eggs a day out of a hen.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You haven't had the right breeds, if you haven't seen two eggs a day out of a hen.

You are being facetious for sure.

 

[varidgerunner]

I have seen two eggs a day out of my hens many times. I'm not saying it's common but certainly not rare. I have even seen it with Leghorns, flock of x birds lays x eggs every day and one day you get X+1. Not frequently, but it happens. My game chickens stay in pairs, and more times than I can count, I have seen more than one egg per 24 hour period. I have seen clutches of ten or twelve eggs laid in less than 10 or 12 days, I have gone out and picked an egg out of a pen that had an egg the day before and went back and picked another that evening. I don't believe my cocks are laying eggs. If you have had 30 breeds for 30 years, and you haven't had more than 1 egg a day at some point, I would say that it is likely that none of those breeds were capable of laying more than 1 egg a day. I would also say that the eggheads that wrote all of those studies about chicken reproduction, didn't study enough breeds of chickens, or didn't study them long enough.

I will gladly sell you one for a thousand dollars, but I will go ahead and warn you, I doubt you will make millions in the egg business. While these girls will spurt out a lot of eggs in a short time, if their feet get too warm, they are going to shut down and start setting. If their feet get too cold, they will stop laying, too.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
7 dozen a week = 84 eggs divide by 6 is 14 eggs per chicken divide by 7 Yep thats two eggs a day. Red Betty layers you say. That"s a breed I haven't come across yet But I don't have as much experience as some with breeding chickens.

if you are giving advice you should stick to numbers of eggs normally produced by hatchery chickens.... at best I got 2 eggs every three days from my hatchery non prolific hens. I had one hen that layed an egg a day for six days and took one off. Still I had too many eggs from four hens for my little family.

Also If it were me getting large numbers of eggs like that I would be seriously trying to figure out why... Starting with an isolation cage to establish egg production for each hen.

deb