An egg a day--do any chickens do this all the time?

[gophert]

Just curious about this as I am still new to chickens. I have 3 hens--one is 1yo and the other two are pushing 3. The 1yo lays about 5 or 6 days out of 7 (other two lay every other day or a bit more often). Is that pretty much peak production, or do some hens literally lay every day?

ETA: the 1yo is a RIR and the other 2 are Barred Rocks. I am perfectly happy with their egg production (especially the 3yos--I think they're doing pretty well!)...just was curious.

I LOVE having chickens.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Properly fed and well managed any good commercial White Leghorn or red sex-link should give you close to an egg a day in their pullet year. After that they'll begin to slow down as any chicken will.

 

[loanwizard]

That's pretty good production. They aren't machines lol! I have 35 hens. Some are pullets, some are old, some are molting. I am getting 6 eggs per day average. Time to start culling I suppose.

 

[speckledhen]

It does vary per individual. I have one hen who lays every day without fail except on the very rarest of occasions and she is going on 3 years old now, a Barred Rock. And one of my Delawares is about as regular at the same age. My BBS Orpingtons have never been that regular. Five days out of seven is about their best production level and more often than not, it's four.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

My two white leghorns began laying around the 4th of July and have only missed 1 day each since that time.

I keep thinking that they will take a day or two off, but they don't. It is amazing! Beautiful eggs too!

 

[oneofseven]

From what I've read the average takes 24-28 hours to make an egg. Hence, most hens have a "sabbath" day. That is also why most hens do not lay at the same time every day.

 

[gophert]

Yes, I actually have a spreadsheet tracking their laying (I am such a nerd) and I have noticed that the RIR will usually skip a day when her laying "time" is getting very close to the end of the day. Mine do seem to take 26-27 hours between eggs.

 

[Aemelia]

My RIR comes very close to an egg a day. She's still a pullet. My Production Red took longer to get with the egg laying program but she is real steady too. Those two are real steady 6 eggs a week. I have 3 hens the last 4 weeks I have gotten 16 eggs each week. My SLW is more likely to lay 5 out of 7 days but I knew she would be a lower producing hen. Then I seem to find a way to drop at least one egg each week.

 

[loanwizard]

Since we are talking about it, how in the heck do you know which hens are laying? I have a full time job and come home and collect eggs. The only reason I know my leghorns aren't laying is I haven't had a white egg in weeks. I am actually going to eat them or give them away as I can't sell white eggs here anyway. Which leaves me about 20-24 girls that at laying 6 eggs per day between them. This has been going on since July, so if it's a molt I wish someone would let me know before I get rid of all them. Got 7 2 week olds and more in the incubator, proving they can and will be replaced. I am not feeding them for free, just like me, they gotta produce lol!

 

[gophert]

I only know because I'm home most days and because I can see their chicken ark from the large windows in the living room/kitchen, so I know when they go up to lay. My kids also are very interested and keep an eye on them. That said, I do sometimes miss the action and I expect we will stop paying such close attention once the novelty wears off a bit.