At what age do pullet's eggs start to get larger?

[krista74]

My 2 BO girls both lay small, creamy coloured eggs. I have read many books and articles which suggest they should be laying large, brown eggs, but I told them that and they didn't want to know about it!

I doubt that the colour of their eggs will change much I the future as they are both fairly consistent in that department, but I was wondering what are the chances that their eggs could get bigger over time?

When they first started laying at around 23 weeks old, their eggs averaged 50 - 52 grams. Occasionally we would get a 48 gram egg, and rarely a 55 gram egg.

Now, they have been laying for about 4 months, and the average egg is about 55 grams. We had one 60 gram egg, and still regularly get 52 gram eggs.

Is it too late now to expect any larger eggs?

To be honest, as far as laying goes they have been quite disappointing in comparison to my RIR girls, who lay 75 gram eggs on a regular basis.

One BO also had a run of soft-shelled eggs but a change in diet seems to have rectified that. She also lays long, thin eggs as opposed to the traditional shaped egg.

Lucky they are so darn cute - I could never part with them!

- Krista

 

[chooks4life]

BOs were, if I recall correctly, supposed to be a dual purpose breed, not just a layer breed. Pure layer breeds lay larger eggs and more of them. Your RIR girls are supposed to also be dual-purposes but if they're all from hatcheries chances are they've been selected more along either type or laying lines, the RIRs especially being selected as though they were layer breeds only... BOs from hatcheries aren't usually great examples of the breed. Generally my pullets upsized their eggs to their final size within anywhere from a few days to a month or two. I can't offer any real guesstimate how long your girls might take but given that they've had 4 months, you may be looking at the final size.

Best wishes.