Why are you keeping chickens? That's a question you should ask when considering egg size and production. Ameraucana hens which should weigh 5 pounds at maturity, should lay a large egg, 25+ ounces per dozen, or they are not really earning their keep. They should also be fairly good producers. If you are just keeping them for their looks then small to medium eggs and poor production are OK. Blue eggs do lighten up as the laying cycle proceeds, but I've never seen an egg get completely white.
That's a good question that I'd say folks should give some thought to. However, I can't really think of any good reason to keep a LF chicken that consistently lays a small to medium egg AND has poor production. Even if one solely has birds for breeding and showing, egg production and size should be a consideration in a breeding plan. As for my birds earning their keep, I imagine if that was a priority, I'd be selling most of my birds! LOL I think my chickens come close to paying for themselves and may actually obtain that goal but I haven't actually sat down & looked at my spreadsheet in some time. I only know that because of the ducks, I'm lucky to break even in a year and the last couple I haven't even come close to doing that.
I'm wondering Collaire, what varieties do you have? How long have you been breeding? What have you experienced with your Ameraucanas in the way of production and size?
As I said in my previous post, productivity became a major focus of my breeding plan a few years ago when I began having birds that didn't give me an egg for 6-9 months. And so I took steps to correct that. That included setting every single egg from my two BW #10's that laid a white egg and a white egg with just a tinge of blue. I didn't state this before but those #10's were the result of a mating that was done to eliminate brown egg genes that were throwing green into the color.
So, even though the eggs were white, they gave me 5 eggs/week and as I recall those eggs probably weighed somewhere around 1.85oz. My Ameraucana eggs have never been my largest eggs. Most weigh right around 2oz - give or take .25 of oz. Most of the F1 generation laid smaller than that. So size is something I've improved on as well and hope to increase even more. But it's gonna take some time.
I don't know a thing about other varieties so can't speak to what the BBS, Whites, Brown/Reds, Silvers, Buffs do but I'd be interested in hearing what others who have them say. I think I'm safe in saying that egg color, productivity, and size are all things that need to be improved with the WBS variety. Would you other WBS breeders agree?
God Bless,
they are so much entertainment, they each have a personality of their own!
