25-hour egg cycle??

[horsewishr]

I read that a hen lays an egg every 25 hours. So if she lays at 9:00 today, expect the egg to come at 10:00 tomorrow. My girls are not following this "rule." Today they were an hour earlier than yesterday.

I just wondered what everyone else's experiences have been. Are my chickens odd? Or is the 25-hour thing just an average? Or is it just a bunch of hooey?

 

[speckledhen]

Many of mine do that and lay progressively later in the day till they skip a day and others lay almost the same time every single day. Don't know why that is.

 

[pricem11]

At maximum reproductive capacity, ovaries release one ovum on average each 23 hours.

 

[Rosalind]

It's an average, not a rule. Some ladies are going to be more productive than others by sheer luck (good or bad, depends on your perspective).

Same thing in humans. My physiology textbook insists that human females ovulate once every 28 days. No one told my ovaries that, unless I need a new day planner or something.

It's not unheard-of for humans to ovulate a few times a month, or skip for months on end for no apparent reason. I can't imagine that chickens would be a whole lot more regular than people, and they are certainly not even as well-studied!

Just make sure they get enough food and minerals. And lemme tell you, a backrub, a cup of tea, two Midol and some ice cream would help a LOT.

 

[Davaroo]

At maximum reproductive capacity, ovaries release one ovum on average each 23 hours.

This sounds nice, and if you like calculating feed to egg ratios and all that stuff it sounds really great. Get out the graph paper and the ledger books, folks, we're going in the egg business!
The record egg laying hen laid something like 364 days out of 365. So hey, we might be on to something, right?

Naaaaaw! Like Rosalind says, its a rule of thumb and not cast in stone. Might I suggest you learn all "the Rules," then expect them to be off.

Hens will also STOP laying for things like molts, changes in diet, the shift in seasons and occasionally when Don Imus says something stupid.

All sorts of things can muck with their cycle, but an average of 150 eggs per year from a farm hen has always been considered good from what I've read.... 170, very good.

With most hens, under normal conditions its something along those lines.

Just make sure they get enough food and minerals. And lemme tell you, a backrub, a cup of tea, two Midol and some ice cream would help a LOT.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Yeah, it's just a rule and like the human example.... it's just a guideline.

Now, for humans though, there are ways to get the exact 28 day cycle, but I don't think anyone is making a chicken version of that. Just don't incubate the eggs and problem solved.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I agree with that Rosalind...oy...
Obelisk and Penny have the 25 hour schedule. They start at like 6 or so in the morning and go for a week an hour or so later each day.

 

[horsewishr]

thanks all. I should have known. I have a tendency to take things literally, and to be too "scientific" about things.

 

[periphery]

I did the same and thought the 25 hour cycle was written in stone over time though my girls have shown me it just dosent happen like that.