Do people lie about how many eggs they get??

[Minky]

Eggs in winter for me are like unicorns... they don't exist. At all. I don't supplement lighting though.

Out of 7 hens I get 2 to 4 eggs a day from spring to fall. 3 of my hens are older and one's more or less retired, of the 4 younger ones, one is special needs and only lays a few times a year.

LOL !! special needs chicken!! Love it. I have one of those... I swear Im not sure she has ever laid...

 

[Halfpasthen]

Fair enough. I assume no sneaky egg eating animals can get to them. We don't get snow here but we sure have a lot of egg loving snakes and such lol.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I've had chickens my whole life, and I've only had two hens who laid every single day. One was a barred Rock and the other was a cuckoo Marans.

 

[Halfpasthen]

I've had chickens my whole life, and I've only had two hens who laid every single day. One was a barred Rock and the other was a cuckoo Marans.

Right lol. I think saying they lay every day is an exaggeration. Lots of chickens have really good streaks where they lay consistently. But they simply aren't going to lay an egg a day till they croak lol.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I've had many hens who laid 4, 5 or maybe occasionally 6 eggs a week... but every single day... not so much lol

 

[sealer39]

I’m averaging now about 10 a day from 14 layers. They are 5-EE, 3-speckled Sussex, 3-FBCM, 2-white leghorns, and one production blue. I have a light that comes on at 4:30am to sunrise. My two white leghorns do lay an egg everyday. I can’t remember the last time one of them took a day off. So if I had 14 white leghorns like the two I have now I guess I would be one of the ones claiming to get an egg everyday from all my birds.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I don’t know how as my observations say even the best hen cannot lay ever day, but a good sized flock will average a good number of eggs daily. There are a lot of variables... the many variables in my experience include Environment-Nutritio: good food, good water, proper nutrition for the breed (some breeds need more protein than others and thus do not do well on laying crumbles alone or have higher feed ratios), proper space, healthy environment and a stress free environment are important... if you don’t meet those basic needs they stop laying, start eating eggs, and start attacking each other too. Nutrition also effects the quality of eggs, what you feed the hens makes for harder shells or weaker shells, brighter yolks and even effect egg taste... My hens are on a different diet than my friends trying to make a profit selling eggs... when we all brought eggs to work for a pot luck breakfast my eggs were the hardest to crack and very bright yellow compared to the other flocks fed only layer feed. Scientific studies by different governments back up the difference in egg taste and nutrition based on feed as well as hen health. Basic Biology another variable... I learned it takes 25 hours on average for one hen to make one egg, thus every now and then a hen will have an off day so to speak. I have observed amongst my birds this seems to hold true... an egg a day for a bit then an off day no egg from that hen. Also age of hen can effect number and size of eggs laid yearly I never worry about this but I have friends who do and cull their hens after a certain age. Then you have Genetic Biodiversity and the effects of selective breeding for specific goals can result in all sorts of variation between breeds and lines within breeds concerning laying eggs, so some hens will lay almost year round, but others for much shorter periods of the year. Then of course natural lighting effects laying, I never force the hens with lights, I either get eggs or don’t during certain times of the year... however I know it is a practice to trick the hens with extra lighting... then there is going broody, when hens do that they stop laying, so you have to have hens that make poor mothers and don’t want to nest, or a system set up to preventing them from nesting eggs or hiding their eggs... my hens every now and then hide eggs in almost unassailable spots to prevent me from getting their eggs... when ever I cannot find eggs in boxes and it’s nice out I know the girls have a fortress nest some place trying to be mums. Then there is the molting, when ever my hens molt they temporarily stop laying... honestly with all that there are going to be times this hen or that hen does not lay eggs, and some hens will just genetically lay more than others in the year. I get an egg most days but not all year round... I should probably track the egg laying better to have statistical data... but I can confirm from fiddling with my flock all the above effects egg getting and no joy on the egg hunt can happen for a variety of reasons. I don’t know how you get every hen to lay every day all year.

 

[rosemarythyme]

LOL !! special needs chicken!! Love it. I have one of those... I swear Im not sure she has ever laid...

I can almost count how many mine's laid because it's so few. It was about 6 the first year, and 4 the second year. Her last egg was in February I believe.

She THINKS she can lay so she shows all the signs of a laying hen - gets in the nest box an hour a day, fusses when she can't get the box she wants - except the eggs she's taking credit for are clearly not hers (blue? I don't think so!)

I've had many hens who laid 4, 5 or maybe occasionally 6 eggs a week... but every single day... not so much lol

My best layer (an EE) can manage 6 a week, and she (thankfully) molted very late this year, so laid all the way until early December. I don't really count those as winter eggs though because she was due to molt and just so late in getting there. Despite that she also resumed laying first, if that shows you how much the others are slackers.

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

I have five full-sized hens -- one Sapphire Gem and four ISA Browns -- and I average about... three eggs a day, maybe? Plus some (by which I mean anywhere from one to four) eggs per week from my Booted Bantam hen.
Spring's almost here where I live, though, so things have been warming up.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I can almost count how many mine's laid because it's so few. It was about 6 the first year, and 4 the second year. Her last egg was in February I believe.

She THINKS she can lay so she shows all the signs of a laying hen - gets in the nest box an hour a day, fusses when she can't get the box she wants - except the eggs she's taking credit for are clearly not hers (blue? I don't think so!)



My best layer (an EE) can manage 6 a week, and she (thankfully) molted very late this year, so laid all the way until early December. I don't really count those as winter eggs though because she was due to molt and just so late in getting there. Despite that she also resumed laying first, if that shows you how much the others are slackers.

My EEs lay good too.