Average life span?

[Erin80]

What is the general life span of a well kept (clean, well fed, etc) hen?

My first flock (ever!) just turned 3. My Ameraucana hen STILL lays two eggs a day (always has....one bigger, one smaller). My silkies lay once in a while. My barred rock still lays 5 times a week or so.

Every year I get a few new chicks to keep the eggs coming...but even if my girls stop laying, which I know they eventually will, they will live out their days with us as they are more pets to us than egg producers

How old is your oldest chicken?

 

[noregerts]

My oldest is seven and she laid a weird little golf ball a few days ago. If I hadn’t seen her in the box and then had the little blue egg in the picture I’d not have known it was hers. I’ve got about ten hens who are five and they lay regularly in the spring but seldom the rest of the year. Then I have another 15 or so of various ages who can be counted on to lay, and five newbies who should start laying in July.
Is it physiologically possible for a hen to lay two eggs in a day?

 

[Erin80]

My oldest is seven and she laid a weird little golf ball a few days ago. If I hadn’t seen her in the box and then had the little blue egg in the picture I’d not have known it was hers. I’ve got about ten hens who are five and they lay regularly in the spring but seldom the rest of the year. Then I have another 15 or so of various ages who can be counted on to lay, and five newbies who should start laying in July.
Is it physiologically possible for a hen to lay two eggs in a day?

It must be because she is my only blue egg layer....and there are consistently two eggs in the laying box daily. She’s done this since she started laying.

 

[centrarchid]

How can you show the hen lays two eggs in a day so I can believe you?

 

[Erin80]

How can you show the hen lays two eggs in a day so I can believe you?

I have no idea? Lol. I mean I can show you the laying box later on but that won’t mean anything. Unless I rig up a camera right underneath her, I’m not sure I can prove it....she’s been doing this since she started laying. I know for sure it’s her because she was kept (back in the beginning) with barred rock and silkies. She’s my only Ameraucana and my only blue egg layer in the flock .... back then and now. She’s my favourite hen, super friendly and sweet. I will take a picture of her two eggs later on today after she lays and you can see the difference between the first and second. The first is always a darker blue/green colour with a thicker stronger shell. The second is smaller, lighter blue/green, thinner shell and sometimes some calcium deposits on the shell.

 

[centrarchid]

It would be very interesting if she is laying two eggs in a day. You would have to have another party verify on site. I would isolate her to make certain you do not have another cryptic egg layer producing similar colored eggs.

 

[noregerts]

It’s not that we’re doubting you exactly... more that we think your hens are tricking you. An occasional double lay day would even be really unusual but for her to do it every time is downright incredible.

 

[centrarchid]

I think it is possible. If real and genetically based, then such a bird might be particularly valuable in terms of genetic value.

 

[Erin80]

I think it is possible. If real and genetically based, then such a bird might be particularly valuable in terms of genetic value.

Maybe I should get a rooster. Haha! We are hatching 12 in a month or so so maybe I will keep a roo this time and hatch some of her babies.

The hens are definitely not tricking me. As I said, she lived with barred rocks and two silkies. Each silkie lays a small cream egg. My barred rocks lay brown. She is my only blue layer, and there are always two blue eggs. She lays one in the morning, and another later on during the day.

 

[noregerts]

That’s wild!!