Biggest Brown Egg Layer

[Rachel'sFlock]

Quote:
My 6 BAs have layed at least 2 double yolkers a week since they began laying, 2 months ago. Their eggs are good size and many lovely shades of brown, ordinarily.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have two Production Reds I bought from a dairy/egg farmer earlier this year.


They are the BEST LAYERS!


These gals are only about 9 or 10 months old now, and they consistantly produce extra large or jumbo eggs. Until recently, they would go four weeks or more before they took a single day off.


Now, all of my hens are slowing up on egg production. But whereas my barred rocks, buff orpingtons, EEs and EE/barred-rock mixes are slowing down to just two or three a week, the two Production Reds are slowing up to only 9 eggs out of every 10 days.


One of my production reds, Brownie, produces a Hershey's chocolate brown colored egg that is almost always 2 and 1/2 ounces (a jumbo). Cinnamon, the other production red, produces a slightly lighter colored egg (more the color of cinnamon) that is almost always either 2 and 1/4 ounces or else 2 and 3/8 ounces (extra large).


Both produce extremely healthy eggs -- as long as I supplement their feed with boiled egg or old milk. Because they are heavy egg producers, they need to supplement their rations with high quality extra protein and calcium -- more than what the other hens need.


But since I make sure to give them a waterer full of raw milk at least twice a week, plus I give them boiled eggs to eat twice a week, they keep on producing those extra large/jumbo, extra high quality eggs every day.


(BTW, I have been told that chickens have trouble digesting store bought milk. I don't use store bought milk, I use raw milk I get from a local farmer. If you don't have access to RAW milk, then just feed your kids boiled eggs from time to time -- maybe those eggs that got dirty when it rained or they fell out of the nest or whatever...)

 

[Chainsaw385]

Quote:
Decided on this breed as my first chickens this spring.............very ,very happy with them.

They could possibly be Production Reds ....I can't tell.I ordered NHR but read somewhere you often get PR's instead..........Either way NHR or PR I have no complaints.

They are friendly to the point of being a pain sometimes when your trying to do something outside.............but a handfull of birdseed tossed out of the way keeps them busy for a while.

 

[roverjohn]

My sex links, red amber and black, all lay larger eggs than my rocks so I would recommend them.

 

[OverEggstended]

Just thought i would say that although we do give treats to our NH/PR (not sure what mine are either)... we get 5-6 eggs a day from the 6 girls regardless. As to that milk idea... I have heard that you can also mix powdered milk in with the feed. less messy that way. Good for ducks too, which would make a heck of a mess with the liquid stuff.

We do let ours pasture quite a bit... so they may just be getting enough high-protein insects to do the same amount of good anyway.

 

[devildogmrk]

I have Red Sex Links, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons. All of them have been laying LARGER than SUPER JUMBO eggs on about a 40 - 40 - 20 ratio. Which means 40% of the eggs they lay are larger than Super Jumbo (can not even find a carton big enough to even hold them), 40% of the eggs are Jumbo sized and 20% of the eggs turn out regular (store bought large) sized.

Not really sure what makes the difference as I feed the same every day, water the same every day, and so on. Not to mention sometimes the eggs are SUPER DARK and other times they are medium dark brown. With an occassional day that has the eggs just slightly brown (almost beige). So really, even the same hen with the same conditions every day is going to produce differently from time to time. But as a general rule, all of the breeds I have listed above produce LOTS of HUGE beautiful eggs. I pick up my eggs from my girls several times a day and some days I have more eggs produced than I have hens. Which I am told by some that it should not even be possible to have a hen lay more than one per day. In fact, most say that you are lucky to get 1 egg every two days from one hen. So I shake my head in disbelief and try to figure out how it is even possible for my hens to produce so fast.



This is just the ones that I could actually get into a carton. As you can see even these vary in color and size. But the one thing that is consistent is the fact that there are always lots of them whenever I go to visit my girls.

 

[city0squack]

Those eggs!! I have three sex links, 2 red and 1 black and just one Welsumer Bantam.They produce so much too!

Others also told me that I need a rooster for eggs and that they only lay every couple days. Hard to imagine that's even possible with these girls!!

 

[Newell]

I have 2 rhode island red hens. The first one started laying at 4.5 months of age. She has laid one every day for 4 days straight and they are barely larger than a ping pong ball. I am hoping they will get larger as she reaches 6 months.