Early matured white Cochin and late matured blue Andalusian.

[Soula]

My white Cochin chicken started to lay small eggs when she is 4 months and 3 weeks old. She lays 3 eggs in a row and took a break for one day. But our blue Andalusion and Buckeye chickens are 7 and a half months old, still haven't lay eggs yet. Is this normal?

This is the opposite of the information I read from books and Internet. Most people said Cochins are very late to mature, and blue Andalusion chickens are moderately early. Most of my other chickens are good layers. White leghorn chickens started to lay at 4 months age, cuckoo Maran started at 5 months and Orpington chicken started to lay at 6 months age. They all eat the same feed and food, doing the same activities, but they are all different. Leghorns and cockoo Maran lay almost everyday, and Orpington lays about 4-5 eggs a week. So I guess the food and the way I raise them should be fine, and maybe

they just being weird?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The breeding behind your birds will factor into when they start laying.

 

[Soula]

Thanks for your reply. So it doesn't matter what breed they are, their parents or grandparents can decide or change when they start laying?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hatchery bred birds are generally bred to lay well and conform somewhat to the standards, but every hatchery has different looking and performing birds. Small breeders usually focus on breeding to standard because a lot of them show them, the birds laying abilities can suffer though, I have bought show bred birds, they are horrible layers. So it depends on what characteristics were chosen when your birds were bred. And there are always individual birds that don't follow what's normal.

 

[Soula]

Thank you for your detailed explanation. I guess blue Andalusions are hard to breed, more for beauty than for eggs, even though I bought her from the same hatchery as my other good layers. Fortunately we have more than enough eggs for ourselves, and some extra eggs to sell our neighbors.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Everyone on this site will talk about how well their EE lay, my personal experiences with them have been with them being poor layers, starting late, and quitting early. I'm going to try them again and see. I had two Andalusian from a show breeder, very few eggs but nice looking hens. Buckeye, I haven't owned, but they are a dual purpose breed bred to be hardy in the cold.

With this time of year I always add a month to breeds average starting time, so I would think within the month they should start.

 

[Soula]

I have 20 standard chickens and 6 bantam chickens. Within these 26, There is one standard Easter egger, and one bantam EE. The bantam EE looks very cute, almost like a pigeon size.certainly we can never consume so many eggs, most of them goes to our neighbors. We raise them mostly for their poops, not their eggs, because we have a huge garden, and I am a vegetarian, need a lot of vegetables.

We love to keep them as pets, love to play with them. The egg sale money would be enough to buy their feed. So we don't mind they are poor layers. In fact I prefer poor layers, so less headache to find customers to sell eggs. And the chickens can live longer and continuely lay few eggs each year, but produce a lot of poops we need. I feel sorry to see them lay so many eggs and wear out quickly. I prefer they take a break from time to time, so they can stay healthier and live happy long life.

 

[Chickenmanjim7]

I have two buckeyes and they seemed to mature later. Also, they don't seem to be an every day type of layer like 2 days then a break and resume.

 

[Soula]

Thank you for sharing. If they just mature late, it is okay. If they are roosters, that would be a big headache. Fortunately they don't look like roosters, and never crow either.[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Very pretty and definitely a hen. I get too many eggs and feed extras back to my birds, I just like chickens too. Nice looking flock.