Do people lie about how many eggs they get??

[chickencoop57]

And here's where I differ...I have 4 gold laced Wyandottes, they're 4 years old. They lay the biggest eggs and they're my best layers. One of them will go broody from time to time. I also have leghorns, buff orphingtons, barred rocks and 1 of about every other common breed. I will say that my Wyandottes don't lay through the winter but I don't give them heat or light... and it's so cold that the eggs are do get are usually cracked and unusable. My silver laced Wyandotte does lay a much smaller egg, but she is very regular.

I bought 3 Leghorns and 3 Rhode island Reds from Tractor Supply and theyre my best layers and have large egg's. My 2 Buff Orphingtons and 2 Barred Rocks are off and on with small eggs.

 

[Slatkovic1]

Funny-
I agree with Wyandotte's- not an egg from them all winter- but my EE lay all year round, really well. And my Welsummers. The CLB is pretty good too. the danish brown leghorns arent great either.

Our light goes on at 5 am and off at 9 pm all year.
I dont like sexlinks either.

I have 2 Wyandotte’s and get an egg a day maybe once a week only I get one! Lol

 

[JonJacobJinglHimerSchmit]

We often wondered that as well we free range and we don't get nearly an egg a day from our 16 hens. What we do get is lots of fun Easter egg hunts all the time. They don't like to lay in the coop for some reason so they find their own little space to lay eggs. So the reality is we probably do get close to an egg a day it's just that we can't find them until later. Sometimes when we do find them they have already been broken eaten or crushed so obviously they are of no use to us. At the moment we are getting about 9 eggs a day that we can find out of 16.

 

[Bobw59]

We have 63 hens and we average 50 eggs per day. We have gotten as high as 55 and during the winter I had to have pep talks with the girls because production slowed to a crawl.
We have the following breeds:

3 Black French Copper Marans usually 2 per day
10 Barred Rocks usually 8 per day
8 Buff Orpingtons usually 6 per day
6 Brown Leghorns usually 5 per day
26 Easter Eggers usually 21 per day
5 Cinnamon Queens usually 4 per day
5 New Hampshire usually 4 per day

I guess we are just lucky that our girls stay productive 10 months out of the year. We don't use supplemental lighting, they need the rest.

 

[RumneyRoost]

Really just depends on the birds. My 1yo red sexlink and white leghorn have laid an egg a day since they started.
My 1yo Easter Egger and barred rock and my 2yo cream leg bar lay every day or every other day. The 2yo didn’t lay for about two months over the winter.
My 3yo speckled Sussex lays every other day, she didn’t lay for about four months over the winter.

Chickens will only lay a certain number of eggs over their lifetime. And it’s hard work. If egg production is your goal than you will need supplemental light and be prepared to replace your girls every year or two.
Mine are pets. The eggs are just a bonus.

 

[Nebraska islander]

I was told by several old timers who helped me start my flock, "every hen has an egg developing and wants to lay a egg EVERY DAY", if you find the happy medium of light, temperature and a place easily accessible and they like to lay in you can succeed even thru winter. You can't be afraid to try something different or against the grain. Every breed reacts different to it's environment.
I have a coop made from 16ft old insulated garage door sections that were slightly damaged but still stackable and able to provide a 6.5 R value to retain heat. I use a milk house heater(@night timer only)and heat lamp accordingly to night temps in winter. We have LED lights run 24 hrs inside.
I will run a red heat lamp pointed over a 4x8 deep litter method roosting box/bars on one end raised above rest of coop during days it doesn't get above 40 outside. They fill the box with eggs every day scratching the hemp bedding around, makes a warm area to lay eggs a. Out of 40+ hens(americauna, cochins, ameri-cochin mix I hatched out and some polish and few rare other types of muppet headed feather footed chickens) we pick up around 2 dozen eggs in deep winter and 36 to 40 eggs when above 50 during day. There are different foods for layers that do influence egg production but they usually cost too much for me unless they go on sale or are discounting due to shelf exp.then I will grab as many as I can . Some can remarkably influence your egg production in dead of winter so don't be shy to try some to see what works and what doesn't.
I want my hens to support their food thru local egg sales to pay for food they eat. Self sufficient chickens. Wish they'd pay my time to clean and water/feed them but don't see that happening anytime soon. It's joy of knowing where your food comes from and helping others aquire same confidence of what goes on their body. They graze on grass and weeds during growing seasons but winter u have to up supplement more. Find what works for your chickens! It's not a cookie cutter operation, remember the old timer "Every hen needs to lay a egg a day" !
You just have to find out what environment makes them do that.

 

[jakedaniel]

It’s all about breed and conditions. If your flock consisted of nothing but Ideal 236 and Production Reds you’d be getting an egg a day from all of them pretty much because, God bless ‘em, they’re little egg-laying machines

 

[WhiteWaterLady]

I have been "accused" by the local feed store operator of getting pretty close to an egg a day from my layers at the same his are/were "shut down" for the winter, and he has lights in his coop. The meat breeds don't give me as many, but even they give me about 3 eggs a week, on average.
I don't light my coops, but built them with clear roofs so the chickens get as much benefit as possible from the sun. The clear roofs also keep the coops a lot warmer during the winter. You can see pictures and a discussion of my "Chicken Coop Learning Curve" here: https://eclecticmusings.blog/2020/03/29/chicken-coop-learning-curve/
I also feed my chickens layer mash at 18% protein, kitchen scraps from my kitchen as well as customers, and a "scratch" mix for game birds that's lower protein but they WAY prefer it to the layer mash. My birds also free-range, but in the winter, I don't think they get much to eat that way - except when I put them in the garden to work straw and garden remnants into the ground and fertilize for spring.

 

[gimmie birdies]

My best winter layers were leghorn, and blue isbar, and they didn't even have to be young.

 

[Ila88]

Ok, so I am so tired of hearing this " I get an egg a day from all my hens" (in like January!!!!)
I have beautiful healthy free ranging hens- They get free choice pellets. BOSS almost every day/or every other day (about 1 cup maybe)? and daily kitchen scraps.
.....and I get about 10 eggs a day from 20 hens.Thats on a good day in sunny but cold March. In January? Maybe 4-5 a day.

I have 3 hens that are 2.5 yr old.
I have 15 hens that are 1.5 yr old
I have 2 hens that are almost 1 yr old.
I have (2)danish brown leghorn, (3)welsummer, (3)Silver Laced Wyandotte, (1)Cream Legbar and (11) Easter Eggers

On a really good day I would get 14-17. In spring. How are all these people getting an egg a day?????

You are doing well. I have 14 and the most I get is 6 a day. Some are older and retired. In January, some days I got 1.